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THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF 
LOCAL LIFE IN THE CITY OF 
COLUMBUS, OHIO 


THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 


THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

NEW YORK 


THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON 

THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI 

THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY 

SHANGHAI 




The Neighborhood: A Study 
of Local Life in the City 
of Columbus, Ohio 


By 

RODERICK DUNCAN McKENZIE 



> 

» -> 
> > > 

) 


THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 























Hl\l $c 
■Ci M 
i^za 


COPYHIGHT I923 By 
The University of Chicago 


All Rights Reserved 


Published February 1923 


C 
r t 


© Cl AC98795 

Composed and Printed By 
The University of Chicago Press 
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 






PREFACE 


Several years have elapsed since this study was completed. 
The only reason for reprinting now in book form is to meet the 
Doctor’s dissertation requirements of the University of Chicago. 
The modern city is in rapid process of change. The findings 
revealed in this study may now have but historic significance. 
The method employed, however, may possess elements of more 
permanent value. 

It is almost beside the point to say that I am much indebted 
to the many students and friends in Columbus who so generously 
assisted in the field work connected with this study. I am, how¬ 
ever, particularly obligated to my good friend and teacher, Dr. 
Robert E. Park, for his patient and able guidance throughout the 
entire work. 




v 





TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Part I. Local Life within the City 


PAGE 

I. City Structure. 145 

II. Mobility.156 

III. The Neighborhood. 344 

IV. Experiments in Neighborhood Organization . . . .354 

Part II. An Analysis oe a Disintegrated City 

Neighborhood 

V. Description of Neighborhood.486 

VI. Mobility of Neighborhood.492 

VII. Economic Status and Occupational Life.496 

VIII. The Home and Domestic Life.501 

IX. Religion and the Church.588 

X. Leisure-Time Activities.595 

XI. Education and Juvenile Delinquency.605 

XII. Neighborhood Sentiment. 607 

Part III. The Rehabilitation of the Neighborhood 

XIII. The Neighborhood as the Unit of Political and Social 

Reform. 7 80 

XIV. Conclusions.796 


• • 
Vll 
















































1 













































































LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


MAP PAGE 

I. Racial, National, and Industrial Localities . . . .148 

II. Economic Areas of City.153 

III. Mobility of Population.163 

IV. Homes of Dependent Families in Columbus . . facing 166 

V. Homes of Delinquent Children .facing 166 

VI. Complete Map of Neighborhood.487 

VII. Homes of Dependent Families in Neighborhood . . . 500 

VIII. Distribution of Members of a Neighborhood Church . . 590 

IX. Distribution of Members of a Down-Town Church . .591 

X. Distribution of Neighborhood Churches and Missions. . 592 

XI. Neighborhood Saloons, Pool-Rooms, and Picture Theaters . 598 

XII. Neighborhood Play Spaces.604 

XIII. Homes of Neighborhood Delinquent Children . . . 607 

XIV. City Vote on Prohibition.789 

XV. City Vote on Woman’s Suffrage.790 

XVI. City Vote on Employment of Women in Saloons . . . 791 

GRAPH 

I. a ) Ward Distribution of Votes.793 

b ) Economic Status of Wards.793 

II. Precinct Distribution of Votes.794 

III. Comparative Homogeneity of Wards 2 and 3 . 797 


ix 
















































LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGE 

I. Relation between Ward Stability and Economic Status . 165 

II. Ward Variations in Stability, Dependency, and Juvenile 
Delinquency.166 

III. Age and Sex Distribution of Population .... 489 

IV. Place of Birth of White Adults.490 

V. Location of Colored Families.491 

VI. Home Ownership by Streets.492 

VII. Comparative Mobility of Two City Neighborhoods . . 493 

VIII. Rents per Month in Relation to Size of Dwelling . .497 

IX. Occupations of Male Heads of Households .... 498 

X, XI. Neighborhood Industries.499 

XII. Artificial Lighting of Dwellings.501 

XIII. Household Conveniences.501 

XIV. Rooms per Dwelling in Relation to Size of Household . 502 

XV. Age Distribution of Male Heads of Households. . . 504 

XVI. Children per Household, Eighteen Years and Under . 505 

XVII. Parental Status of Heads of Households .... 506 

XVIII. Religious Affiliations.589 

XIX. Summary of Leading Facts Regarding Neighborhood 

Churches.593 

XX. Possession of Musical Instruments.596 

XXI. Extent of Social Visiting.596 

XXII. Types of Leisure-Time Activities of Boys .... 601 

XXIII. Types of Leisure-Time Activities of Girls .... 601 

XXIV. Percentage of Non-school Attendance by Wards. . . 605 

XXV. Average Deviations of Ward Votes from General Average 

for Columbus.787 

XXVI. Average Deviation of Precinct Votes from the Averages 

for Different Wards. 795 


XI 








i 


Reprinted from 

The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXVII, September, 1921; 
November, 1921; January, 1922; March, 1922; and May, 1922 


THE AMERICAN 

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


Volume XXVII SEPTEMBER 1921 Number 2 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE IN 
THE CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 


r. d. mckenzie 

University of Washington 


ABSTRACT 

City structure. Cities are usually classified according to size. They may be 
also classified according to the nature and organization of their leading industries. 
Land valuations in the forms of business, industrial, and residential utilities, largely 
determine the structure of the modern city. Every city has its central business 
district, located near the geographical center of the city. Sub-business districts tend 
to form at street-car crossings and around neighborhood institutions. The basic 
industries are usually located around the outskirts of the city’s corporation, while 
manufacturing establishments employing women are usually located near the center 
of the city. Real estate values distribute a city’s population into various residential 
sections of different economic and social status. Racial and nationality bonds tend 
to subgroup the population within the various economic areas. Mobility of popula¬ 
tion. The term implies the extent to which the individual varies his environment, 
either by change of residence or by use of secondary means of communication. The 
mobility of modern life facilitates disorganization of traditional group and institutional 
structures. It is a measure of progress, but at the same time aggravates many of 
our political and social problems. Change of residence is much more frequent among 
the lower economic classes in Columbus than among the well-to-do. But dependence 
upon local institutions is considerably greater in the poorer neighborhoods than in 
the better residential sections, on account of inability to use secondary means of 
communication. 


PART I. LOCAL LIFE WITHIN THE CITY 

I. CITY STRUCTURE 

Columbus is a city of about 210,000 inhabitants, according to 
the latest census. There are forty-three other cities in the United 
States, which, from the point of view of population, fall in the same 


14s 








146 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


class . 1 Of these cities eleven are in the New England states, eight 
in the Middle Atlantic, seven in the East North Central, two in 
the West North Central, two in the Mountain, and five in the 
Pacific states. 

Inasmuch as the modern city is largely an industrial institu¬ 
tion it is important to know the nature of a city’s leading industries. 
Eighteen of the cities in question have for their main industry the pro¬ 
duction of iron and steel products, eight have textiles and clothing, 
four lumber, three boots and shoes, three baking and confection¬ 
ery, two publishing and printing, two preserving and canning, one 
rubber goods, one furniture, one jewelry, and one cotton-seed oil . 2 

These cities may again be classified according to the relative 
importance of their leading industries. Nine of the forty-four 
cities of this group are characterized by the national importance 
of their major industries . 3 For example, Patterson, New Jersey, 
Fall River, Lowell, and Lawrence, located in Massachusetts, 
belong to the textile and clothing group and have their industries 
organized on a nation-wide sale of products. Similarly, Akron 
with its rubber goods, Grand Rapids with its furniture, Youngstown 
with its iron and steel products, represent the type of city with a 
single dominant industry organized on a national scale. The 
majority of the cities in this group, however, are not characterized 
by a single outstanding industry but possess numerous small 
industries of approximately the same size, the larger part of their 
business being limited to local trading areas. Cities with this 
type of industrial life may be called diversified cities . 4 Columbus 

1 The estimated population of Columbus for 1916 was 209,722. It belongs to 
the third group of American cities, those having a population of 100,000 to 300,000. 
There was a total of forty-four cities in this group in 1916. General Statistics of 
Cities (1916). 

2 This classification was made from the Census of Manufactures, Vol. I (1914) 
and is based on census returns (1910). Undoubtedly in several instances the leading 
industry of 1910 is not the leading industry of today. The industry employing the 
greatest total number of employees was taken as the leading industry. 

3 Cities in which the major industry employed more than twice as many workers 
as the industry next in order, and more than the total listed for the classification, 
“all other industries” I have classified here, as “single-industry cities.” 

4 See C. A. Beard, American City Government (1912), pp. 26-29, for a classifica¬ 
tion of types of American municipalities. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 147 


belongs in this latter class . 1 It has three relatively important 
types of industry: foundry and machine-shop products; the 
construction of cars, locomotives, and heavy machinery, and the 
manufacture of boots and shoes. 

Most of our great cities are circular or star shaped unless 
directly modified by geographical peculiarities. This structure 
is due to the inherent nature of city development, when uncontrolled 
by conscious design. “ Whatever the type of city, growth consists 
of movement away from the point of origin, and is of two kinds; 
central, or in all directions, and axial, or along the water courses, 
railroads and turnpikes which form the framework of cities. ” 2 

Columbus is shaped like a Greek cross. Its two leading 
thoroughfares, Broad and High streets, intersect at right angles 
near the junction of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers. High Street, 
the business backbone of the city, runs north and south for a 
distance of about nine miles within the corporation limits. Broad 
Street, on the other hand, runs east and west, or nearly so, and 
forms the arm of the cross. This street comprises part of the old 
Lincoln Highway. Topography has had something to do in de¬ 
termining the rough outlines of the city’s structure. The junction 
of the two rivers just mentioned furnishes the basis for the crosslike 
appearance of the city. Expansion has followed the lines of least 
resistance along the south side of the Scioto River and the east 
bank of the Olentangy. 

The distribution of business, industry, and population within 
the confines of any large city is determined by the operation of 
economic forces which tend to produce certain similarities of 
structure with respect to all big cities. 

Generally speaking, the utility of land in the city falls into three classes: 
business utility, industrial utility, and residential utility. The areas devoted 
to these purposes are separated by more or less definite lines and are themselves 

1 Columbus, like almost every other city of its size, manufactures articles which 
are sold throughout the entire country, also in foreign lands, but Columbus is not 
dominated by any particular industry, nor does it have the habit of advertising in any 
of the national journals such as the Post , Literary Digest , etc. 

2 Richard M. Hurd, Principles of City Land Values (.Record and Guide, 1903). 
Adapted as a reading in Marshall, Wright, and Field, Materials for the Study of Ele¬ 
mentary Economics (1913), p. 620. 


148 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


subdivided according to the specific nature or class of use for each purpose. 
Business area for instance lies generally at the focus of local transportation routes 
or in other words at the point of intersection of the strongest lines of local 


MAP OF 

COLUM BUS, OHIO 

SHOWING 

RACIAL, NATIONAL. AND 
INDUSTRIAL LOCALITIES 
918 

Scale of Miles 



.Industrial Areas 

ma- ..German Neighborhood 

W..Scattered Negro Families' 

.SolidNegro Sections 

I o 0 <v>....Jewish Sections 
..Italian « 

^.•^•.....Roumanian Section 

A4A.Hungarian « 

on^.-Organized Street 

<$_Settlement House 

____-.Ward Boundaries 
3.~..Ward Numbers 


Map I 


travel. This point is very often at the geographical center of the city which 
can be reached from all sections of the city with equal facility. The industrial 
area on the other hand has no one definite location, as has the business area. 
Depending largely on railroad facilities, it soon becomes scattered throughout 






























THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


149 


all sections of the city, forcing its way from all directions in wedges almost to 
the business heart. There is generally no control and no concentration other 
than that offered by the railroad lines. To residential purposes is devoted 
the rest of the land in the city. This is generally of three classes: fine residen¬ 
tial area; general residential area; and tenement area. The first of these 
preempts those sections of the city which have the greatest number of pleasing 
and natural advantages. The second, in general, lies along the thoroughfares 
and highways which have the best transportation facilities and also along such 
railroads as provide suburban transportation. The third class, the tenement 
areas, are generally found in the industrial regions and in the pockets or areas 
that lie between railroad lines and close to the center . 1 

The central business section of Columbus, as indicated on 
Map I, is located near the geographical center of the city. It 
comprises an area of about half a mile in length and three blocks 
in width, the central part of which is the junction of the two streets 
already mentioned. This is the corner of the State House grounds, 
also the site of the city’s leading hotel. One does not feel that he 
is “down town” until he reaches this corner . 2 

Immediately surrounding the central business section of most 
cities is to be found a more or less disintegrated area, comprising 
wholesale establishments, low class hotels and apartment houses, 
second-hand stores, and cheap places of amusement. This region 
is usually inhabitated by a migratory class of people, such as day 
laborers, immigrants, and negroes. It also tends to become the 
rendezvous of the vicious and criminal classes. 

The factors distributing values over the city’s area by attracting or repuls¬ 
ing various utilities, are, in the case of residences, absence of nuisances, good 
approach, favorable transportation facilities, moderate elevation, and parks; 

1 E. H. Bennett, “Planning for Distribution of Industries, "Annals of the American 
Academy (January, 1914), pp. 217-18. 

2 Referring to the defects of the round city John P. Fox, Secretary of the Transit 
Committee, City Club of New York, writes, “The round city, as found in America, 
tends to have a congested business center, with high buildings, high land values, high 
rents, congested streets and similar faults. It tends to require riding to and from 
work, especially if one wishes to live anywhere near the country. It requires too 
many radiating streets to reach surrounding territory, using more land than necessary. 
It makes it impossible to build one adequate rapid transit line to serve all the central 
district and the residence sections. It buries most people in its midst too far from 
the country, the latter being reached only by riding, which many poor people cannot 
afford to do.”—“Relation between Transit and Housing,” Annals of the American 
Academy (January, 1914), p. 160. 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


150 

in the case of retail shops, passing street traffic, with a tendency toward 
proximity to their customer’s residences; in the case of retail wholesalers and 
light manufacturing, proximity to the retail stores which are their customers; 
in the case of heavy wholesaling or manufacturing, proximity to transportation; 
and in the case of public or semi-public buildings, for historical reasons, 
proximity to the old business center; the land that is finally left being filled in 
with mingled cheap utilities, parasites of the stronger utilities, which give a 
low earning power to land otherwise valueless . 1 

Such a disintegrated area is quite conspicuous in the city of 
Columbus. Surrounding the main business section on all sides 
for a distance of from one to a dozen blocks there is a black and 
grimy area unfit for human habitation. Here cheap boarding 
houses and questionable hotels are wedged in between large ware¬ 
houses and wholesale establishments. This region is very largely 
given over to colored people and poor whites . 2 Prior to the sup¬ 
pression of segregated vice in the city a considerable part of this 
section was occupied by keepers of immoral resorts. The eastern 
part of this district contained, in the early days, the homes of many 
of the wealthiest residents of the city. However, with the expan¬ 
sion of business and the development of modern means of transit, 
the well-to-do moved farther east along Broad Street, leaving their 
now obsolete homes to be used as places of business or to be sub¬ 
divided into cheap apartments for the poor. 

Most of our cities, due to their rapid growth, have districts that are going 
through a transition from resident districts to factory and business districts. 
Rents from dwellings are decreasing, while land value is greatly increasing. 
The owners of many of these homes, foreseeing the opportunity to sell the 
land for business purposes in one year or ten years, will not repair or improve 
their houses, because they argue it would be a waste to put more money in 
the houses that will in themselves bring no return when selling the land . 3 

The primary industries of most cities tend to be located near 
the outskirts of the city’s corporation, along water fronts and 

1 Richard M. Hurd, op. cit., p. 620. 

a In his study of 4,500 employees in factories located in Norwood and Oakley, 
suburbs of Cincinnati, Graham Romeyn Taylor found that “nearly half, or 44.68 
per cent, live in thickly populated parts of down-town Cincinnati, five miles from 
their work .”—Satellite Cities , p. 97. 

3 Mildred Chadsey, “The Old House as a Social Problem,” Annals of the American 
Academy (January, 1914), p. 87. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 151 

railroad tracks. Smaller industries, especially those employing 
women and unskilled labor, seek low-priced areas near street-car 
lines and so may be located in almost any part of the city. Around 
the primary industries independent communities develop which 
have a life of their own distinct from the rest of the city, such, for 
example, as the stockyard district of Chicago. Subcommunities 
of another type, due to the difference of population selection, form 
around any important center, such as a university, park, school, 
or other public institution. 

Transfer points, owing to concentration of daily streams of people and 
consequent opportunity for shops, are strategic points in a city’s area, creat¬ 
ing business subcenters, whose prospects of increasing values are limited only 
by the number and quality of the people likely to utilize them. As examples, 
note the marked effect of transfers in New York at Broadway and 34th Street, 
Madison Avenue and 59th Street, Lexington Avenue and 59th Street; also 
in New Haven at Chapel and Church streets; in Denver at 15th and Lawrence 
streets; and many transfer points in the outlying districts of Chicago. 1 

Columbus has three significant industrial communities. One 
is located in the twelfth ward and contains the plants of the Jeffrey 
Manufacturing Company, which employs about 4,000 men, and 
the High Malleable Company, which employs about 700 men. The 
second industrial area lies along the Scioto River, extending from 
First Avenue down to the center of the city. In this district are 
the plants of the Lamneck Furnace Company, the Nye and Sons 
Stove Company, and the Hulse Furniture Company. The third 
industrial section is found in the south end of Columbus. Here 
are the large steel industries of the city, including the Buckeye 
Steel Casting Company, the Columbus Branch of the American 
Rolling Mill Company, the Seagraves Manufacturing Company, 
and others. In addition to these manufacturing areas the shops 
of the different railroads form other industrial communities. The 
Hocking Valley Shops are located in a bend of the Scioto River 
in the western part of Ward 2, making this section of the ward 
much less stable than the remaining German part of it which lies 
east of High Street. Similarly the large Pennslyvania Shops, 
located a short distance northeast of the United States barracks, 
account for the mixed foreign and negro section found there. 


1 Richard M. Hurd, op. cit ., p. 622. 


152 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


Each of these industrial areas has a more or less distinctive 
community life of its own. The residents of these communities 
are very largely people who work in the nearby industries. While 
their economic status is that of the day-laboring class still their 
population elements comprise a mixture of practically all racial 
and national stocks. There is a distinct tendency, as may be seen 
by Map I, for the different racial and linguistic groups to form 
little colonies within these industrial communities. This is espe¬ 
cially noticeable with respect to the industrial area surrounding 
the South Columbus Steel Works. This is a motley district, 
practically every street represents a different racial or national 
aggregation. 

The population of any city is distributed according to economic 
status into residential areas of various rental or real estate values. 
Family income tends to segregate the population of a city into 
different economic districts much the same as the price of tickets 
at a theater divides the audience into several different strata of 
economic and social distinction. 

The main consideration in the individual selection of a residence location 
is the desire to live among one’s friends or among those whom one desires to 
have for friends; for which reason there will be as many residence neighbor¬ 
hoods in the city as there are social strata. 1 

In order to bring into relief the various levels of economic 
distribution of the population of Columbus a measure of compara¬ 
tive economic status was sought. It was finally decided to take 
the average per elector tax returns on household furniture as a 
standard of rating. Household furniture returns are listed from 
the home address rather than from the down-town office, and. 
therefore, furnish a territorial distribution of this sort of property. 
The returns were calculated by wards and the totals divided by 
the number of registered electors for the same year in each ward. 2 

The measure of economic status here adopted is not without 
its shortcomings. In the first place the ward is not a homogeneous 
economic area. It frequently includes the extremes of wealth and 

1 Richard M. Hurd, op. cit., p. 621. 

2 The ward totals were divided by the number of registered electors rather than 
by the number of householders, inasmuch as each householder is allowed one hundred 
dollars tax exemption on furniture, and, therefore, in the lower economic regions 
only a small percentage of the families made returns at all. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


153 


poverty. This is true, for example, with respect to the sixth ward, 
the eastern end of which contains some of the most luxuriant 
homes in the city, while the western corner represents a broken- 
down colored section. But, on the whole, the classification of 


MAP OF 

COLUM BUS, OHIO 

SHOWING 

DIVISION OF CITY INTO 

ECONOMIC AREAS 

BY WARDS 

BASED ON 

PERSONAL PROPERTY RETURNS 
1918 



LEGEND 

less-than $60 per-elector. 

From $60 to $100 « • 

From $100 to $140 « 

From $140 to $200 a ® 

From _$ ZOO and over 0 * 

Neighborhood ® Settlement House 



2 • 

4 2 

- i 


Scale of Miles 

1 i 


Map II 


wards, as determined by this form of measurement, corresponds 
almost precisely with the common-sense rating as based on general 
observation. The foregoing map (Map II) indicates the results of 
this study. 




























































iS4 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


The first impression gained from an examination of this map 
will be the striking difference in economic status of the various 
wards in the city. Wards 4 and 5 with their economic status of 
$202 and $219 respectively, stand in bold contrast to Wards 9 and 

10 whose per elector status is less than one quarter as great. The 

* 

latter wards, as may be seen by Map III (p. 163) are also the most 
mobile sections of the city. Wards 15 and 16 comprise the univer¬ 
sity district and represent the middle class type of home. The rela¬ 
tively low rating of Ward n is due to the presence of a large 
negro colony located near its southern border, also to a disinte¬ 
grated neighborhood lying north of the State Hospital for the 
Insane. On the other hand, Ward 1 is probably rated a bit too 
high. This is a foreign locality surrounding the South Columbus 
Steel Works and our measure of economic status applies merely 
to citizens. 

Racial and national sentiments tend to subgroup the popula¬ 
tion of the different economic areas of a city into more intimate 
social divisions. “ Every great city has its racial colonies, like the 
Chinatowns of San Francisco and New York, the Little Sicily of 
Chicago, and various other less pronounced types.” 1 Columbus 
has several such racial and national colonies, each with a more 
or less distinct social life of its own. 

The colored population, 2 as may be noted on Map I (p. 148), is, 
in general, distributed around the periphery of the main business 
section, along the river flood plains, near the railroad tracks, and 
around the industrial plants. Most of Ward 9 is inhabitated by 
colored people. During the past few years the colored families, 
especially the new arrivals from the South, have been pushing 
their way out into Ward 14, driving the Italians, who previously 
occupied this territory, still farther north. The northern boundary 
line of Ward 9, Goodale Street, is now almost entirely inhabitated 

1 Robert E. Park, “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human 
Behavior in the City Environment,” American Journal of Sociology, XX, 582. 

2 In 1910 Columbus had a colored population of 12,739, which, when compared 
with the total population of the city, constituted at that time a higher percentage of 
negroes than was to be found in any other city in the state. Moreover this number 
has been greatly augmented by the influx of negroes from the South during the past 
few years. 


TEE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


155 


by negroes. The river end of this street, together with the imme¬ 
diately surrounding territory, was originally known as “Fly 
Town,” receiving this name on account of the migratory tendencies 
of workers employed in the nearby factories, also on account of the 
lawlessness of the place. In this section the Godman Guild Social 
Settlement House is located. 

The largest colored community in the city lies just east of the 
central business district. This community includes practically 
all of Ward 7 with the exception of a few streets on which are 
located some of the best residences in the city. It also extends 
into the southwestern corner of Ward 6, the eastern half of Ward 8, 
and the western part of Ward 4. The central part of this colored 
community lies north of Long Street between Seventeenth Street 
and Taylor Avenue. This region is undisputably surrendered to 
negroes. It is a city of blacks within the larger community. Here 
are found colored policemen, colored hotels, stores, churches, pool- 
rooms, picture theaters, as well as separate colored schools. The 
colored people have their own local organizations such as lodges, 
war-relief clubs, and a political organization called “The Negro 
Republican League.” 

Of the minor negro colonies indicated on Map I attention 
should be called to the one in the extreme south end of the city, 
adjoining the steel plants; to the colored neighborhood in the 
eleventh ward, reference to which will be made later; to the colored 
district surrounding the Jeffrey Manufacturing Plant in Ward 12, 
and to the smaller colored localities adjoining the university campus. 

Columbus has one large Jewish colony, lying a few blocks 
east of the southern end of the main business section of the city. 
This district is bounded on the north by Rich Street, on the east 
by Parsons Avenue, on the south by Livingston Avenue, and on 
the west by Grant Street. In this quadrangle, comprising about 
twelve city blocks, there is located the Jewish Schonthal Commu¬ 
nity House, Temple Israel, the Agudas, Achim Synagogue, Tiffereth 
Israel Synagogue, the Beth Jacob Synagogue, the Ahavath Sholen 
Synagogue, and the Jewish Progress Club. The area described, 
however, is not inhabitated entirely by Hebrews. The population 
is a mixture of colored and Jewish people. This is the home of 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


156 

the Orthodox Jews of Columbus. 1 The so-called “Reformed” 
Jews, which include, as a rule, the Jews of German nationality, 
are dispersed along the eastern section of the city in the better 
residential district between Broad Street and Bryden Road. 

The renowned German section 2 of the city extends along South 
High Street from Livingston Avenue as far south as Washington 
Park, bounded on the east by Parsons Avenue, and on the west 
by the Hocking Valley tracks. It comprises an area of about a 
square mile and falls, for the most part, within the second ward. 
Many of the most prominent of the old German families reside 
along High Street south of Livingston Avenue. Practically all 
of these families own their homes and many of them have resided 
here for over thirty years. The whole community, just outlined, 
is fundamentally German. The dwellings represent the typical 
German village structure, built close up to the sidewalk, with 
garden space and chicken house in the rear. Many of the alleys 
are lined with small residences. Frequently the owner of a fine 
home will have a small building on the rear of his lot occupied by 
a tenant family. The shops, churches, and other public places 
of this district are owned and operated by Germans, and the 
German language is used almost exclusively. 

Lying immediately south of this German neighborhood and 
extending to the southern limits of the city is a mixed foreign 
district, inhabitated by Austrians, Lithuanians, Hungarians, and 
Italians. 

II. MOBILITY 

“The city is the spectroscope of society; it analyzes and sifts 
the population, separating and classifying the diverse elements.” 3 

Mobility of population may be considered under three heads: 
change of residence from one community to another, change of 

1 This is the historic Jewish neighborhood of Columbus and is noted for the 
solidarity of its local life. Graham Taylor says, . . . The family-like fellowships 
persistently growing out of and around the Jewish synagogue, which is the most 
ancient type of the neighborhood still surviving, perpetuate the spirit of neighborliness 
and give it more or less flexible, but long accepted, forms of development.”— Religion 
in Social Action (1913), p. 149. 

3 According to the 1910 Census, Columbus had 5,722 foreign-born Germans, which 
was the largest single foreign-born nationality in the city ( Thirteenth Census of United 
States , III, 428). 

3 A. F. Weber, The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century (1899), p. 442. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


157 


residence from one neighborhood to another within the community, 
and mobility without change of residence. 1 The official sources of 
information on these subjects are very inadequate. The census 
reports furnish data concerning nationality and interstate migra¬ 
tions, 2 but aside from that we know nothing about the movements 
of people from one community to another, 3 much less the move¬ 
ments that take place within the community itself. 

That the mobility of modern life is intimately connected with 
many of our social problems there is general consensus of opinion. 
Assuming that a reasonable amount of mobility is both inevitable 
and desirable, nevertheless it is unquestionably true that the 
excessive population movements of modern times are fraught with 
many serious consequences. 

Perhaps the most obvious effect of the mobility of the popula¬ 
tion within a city is the striking instability of local life. Neighbor¬ 
hoods are in a constant process of change; some improving, others 
deteriorating. Changes in incomes and rents are almost 
immediately registered in change of family domicile. Strengthened 
economic status usually implies the movement of a family from a 
poorer to a better neighborhood, while weakened economic status 
means that the family must retire to a cheaper and less desirable 
district. 4 So in every city we have two general types of neighbor- 

1 Robert E. Park says, .... “Mobility in an individual or in a population is 
measured, not merely by change of location, but rather by the number and variety of 
the stimulations to which the individual or the population responds. Mobility 
depends, not merely upon transportation, but upon communication.”— American 
Journal of Sociology , XX, 589. 

2 The 1910 Census records the percentage of the population of each state born 
within the state. This gives a general impression of the relative mobility of the dif¬ 
ferent states. The percentage of people born within the state in which they were 
counted varies from 94.7 for North Carolina to 21.8 for Wyoming. Ohio is above 
the average in stability with a percentage of native born of 74.4 ( Thirteenth Census 
of United States, I, 712). 

3 See Bucher’s Industrial Evolution (Wickett translation), chap, x, for an interest¬ 
ing study of internal migrations of population in Germany. He shows that of the 
population of Prussia, in 1880, 57.6 per cent were born in the municipality where 
enumerated (p. 354), & n( l for Bavaria (1871) 61.2 per cent (p. 355 )* 

4 “A study of five hundred families who, in 1913, moved from one home to another 
has clearly shown that in 63 per cent of the cases poorer accommodations were secured 
because of a recent change in the family income which caused a necessary change in 
the amount of rent that could be spared.”—Carol Aronovici, Housing and the Housing 
Problem (1920), p. 20. 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


158 

hood; the one whose inhabitants have located there on the basis 
of personal choice, and the other whose inhabitants have located 
there as the result of economic compulsion. The former, as we 
shall see later, contains the possibilities for the development of 
neighborhood sentiment and organization, while the latter lacks 
the necessary elements for reconstruction. 

Rapid community turnover also plays havoc with local stand¬ 
ards and neighborhood mores. It is impossible to have an efficient 
local opinion in a neighborhood where the people are in constant 
move. It has repeatedly been affirmed by students of society that 
the decay of local standards is a pertinent cause of moral laxness 
and disorderliness. 

We are dependent for moral health upon intimate association with a 
group of some sort, usually consisting of our family, neighbors, and other 
friends. It is the interchange of ideas and feelings with this group, and a 
constant sense of its opinions that makes standards of right and wrong seem 

real to us.When we move to town, or go to another country, or get 

into a different social class, or adopt ideas that alienate us from our former 
associates, it is not at all certain that we shall form new relations equally 
intimate and cogent with the old. A common result, therefore, is a partial 
moral isolation and atrophy of moral sense. If the causes of change are at 
all general we may have great populations made up largely of such displaced 
units, a kind of “anarchy of spirits” among whom there is no ethos or settled 
system of moral life at all, only a confused outbreak of impulses, better or 
worse. 1 

The flux of modern life also intensifies all problems connected 
with government, national, state, or local. The fact that we have 
a residence qualification for voting leaves an increasingly large 
number every year of disfranchised citizens. This too applies 
especially to a class, the migrant laborer, which has no other means 
of participation in social control. 

Our distinguished critic, James Bryce, drew attention years 
ago to the relation between mobility and government. 

In no state of the union is the bulk of the population so fixed in its residence 
as everywhere in Europe; in many it is almost nomadic. Except in some of 
the stagnant districts of the South, nobody feels rooted to the soil. Here 
today and gone tomorrow, he cannot readily contract habits of trustful depend¬ 
ence on his neighbors. Community of interest, or of belief in such a cause 

1 C. H. Cooley, Social Process, pp. 180-81. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


159 


as temperance, or protection for native industry, unites him for a time with 
others similarly minded, but congenial spirits seldom live long enough together 
to form a school or type of local opinion which develops strength and becomes 
a proselytizing force. Perhaps this tends to prevent the growth of variety of 
opinion. When a man arises with some power of original thought in politics, 
he is feeble if isolated, and is depressed by his insignificance, whereas if he 
grows up in a favorable soil with sympathetic minds around him, whom he 
can in prolonged intercourse permeate with his ideas, he learns to speak with 
confidence and soars on the wings of his disciples. One who considers the 
variety of conditions under which men live in America may certainly find 
ground for surprise that there should be so few independent schools of opinion. 

Students of municipal government are constantly calling 
attention to the difficulty of creating interest in municipal affairs 
among a people who are in constant move. 2 Stability of residence, 
as a rule, implies home ownership, which in turn gives rise to local 
sentiment and interest in neighborhood surroundings. In a region 
where the population is continually shifting there is little oppor¬ 
tunity for the development of neighborhood sentiment, and as a 
result, local concerns are usually left to take care of themselves. 
It is hard to develop interest in neighborhood affairs among families 
who are the while conscious of the temporary nature of their 
domicile within the district. 

The problems which the mobility of population presents to 
political reformers are likewise common to social workers in other 
fields. Organizations dealing with delinquency and dependency 
are hampered in their efforts by the frequent movements of their 
“cases.” 3 Similarly the church, trade union, and other voluntary 
forms of association lose in their efficiency through the rapid turn¬ 
over of their local membership lists. 4 

1 American Commonwealth , II (1907), 289-90. 

2 Hart {Actual Government, pp. 210-11) points out that the American habit of 
moving is an important cause of bad city government. Goodwin in his Municipal 
Government, p. 26, also emphasizes the relation of population movement to the problem 
of local government. 

3 In a study of 324 newly “closed” cases, in the records of the Social Welfare 
League of Seattle, it was found that the average length of time the families were under 
the jurisdiction of the organization was five months; and the average number of 
changes of residence during that period was 2.2. Moreover, 45.8 per cent of the cases 
were closed because the family had moved away from the city. 

4 in a study made of 2,049 resignations from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce 
(June, 1917, to December, 1920), Mr. Suen Chen, a student in sociology, discovered 


i6o 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


In considering the general causes of the present mobility of 
population it is important to view the subject from both its psycho¬ 
logical and its social aspects. Thomas and Znaniecki have grouped 
the dominant individual wishes or desires into four general classes: 
“the desire for recognition or status; the desire for safety or 
security; the desire for power; the desire for new experiences.” 1 
It is of course obvious that the relative strength of these different 
desires varies in different individuals and at different ages in the 
same individual. E. L. Thorndike says, “old age, femaleness, 
and physical weakness” .... seem to favor “the long familiar 
physical and social environment,” while “adolescence, maleness, 
and energy” 2 seem to be combined with the roaming disposition. 

Of the four types of desires just mentioned the desires for 
security and recognition find their chief satisfactions in the soli¬ 
darity and intimacy of the small local group; while the desires for 
power and new experience attain their fullest fruition in a wider 
social milieu. The rigoristic codes of the small stable community 
have never afforded adequate satisfaction to the human impulses of 
the more energetic members of the group. The solidarity of the 
primitive neighborhood group was undoubtedly, to a greater 
extent, the product of a hostile external environment rather than 
the result of spontaneous human impulses. As Stuckenberg says, 
“Frequently the inherent qualities of men have less power to unite 
than the desire to antagonize what is averse to them.Preju¬ 

dice, hatred, and opposition are powerful factors in association.” 3 

that 764 or 37.3 per cent of those resigning had been members of the organization 
less than one year; 787 or 38.3 per cent had been members more than one year but 
less than two years; 328 or 16.1 per cent had been members more than two years but 
less than three years; while the remaining 170 or 8.1 per cent had been members 
three years or more. Moreover, 604 or 29.4 per cent of the total number resigning 
gave as their reason for leaving the organization change of residence to another com¬ 
munity. 

The present membership of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce (December, 1920) 
is 3 >° 34 > of this number 634 or 20.9 per cent have been members for one year or less; 
i> 1 97 or 39.4 per cent have been members for two years or less; and 1,517 or half the 
total number have been members for three years or less. 

1 The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918), I, 73. 

2 Original Nature of Man, I (1913), 56. 

3 Sociology, the Science of Human Society, I, 86. 




THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 161 

Adam Smith contrasts the strong clan-feeling which still in the eighteenth 
century prevailed among the Scotch Highlanders with the little regard felt for 
remote relatives by the English, and observes that in countries where the 
authority of the law is not sufficiently strong to give security to every member 
of the State the different branches of the same family choose to live in the 
neighborhood of one another, their association being frequently necessary for 
their common defence: whereas in a country like England, where the authority 
of the law was well established, “the descendants of the same family, having 
no such motive for keeping together, naturally separate and disperse, as 
interest or inclination may direct.” 1 

On the social side it is scarcely necessary to draw attention to 
the leading causes of intercommunity migration. The sudden 
change from a predominantly agricultural to a predominantly 
industrial society has occasioned a mobility of life unknown 
before. As long as the soil furnished the chief basis of economic 
income man was obliged to live a comparatively stable life in a 
fixed and definite locality. With the development of the modern 
capitalistic regime, the presence of the individual is no longer 
necessary to insure the productivity and security of his property. 
He may now, if he choses, invest his savings in interest-bearing 
securities which require neither his personal presence nor his atten¬ 
tion to insure an income. He is thus left free to live, if he so desires, 
a nomad life. 2 Of course all classes in society are not equally free 
to move about. The middle-class tradesman and many of the 
professional groups are more or less tied to definite localities by the 
very nature of their work. On the other hand, the well-to-do and 
the day-laborer are free to move almost at will. 

Our modern factory system is the chief cause of the present 
migratory tendencies of the wage-earning class. In an open labor 
market with employers competing with one another in their 
demands for labor, the wage earner is fast becoming a sort of 
tourist who spends but a short period in each community during 
his trip around the country. 

Seasonal or intermittent occupations, temporary jobs, commercial depres¬ 
sions, occasional unemployment, and a general sense of the lack of permanency 

1 E. Westermarck, Moral Ideas, II (1908), 223. 

2 See Godkin, Problems of Modern Democracy , pp. 180 ff., for a brief discussion 
of this subject. 


162 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


in the tenure of their industrial positions, pull settled families up by the roots 
and seldom leave them long enough in one place to take root again. Our 
manual workers are more and more transient. Many among them are forced 
to become tramping families. 1 

Moreover, change of residence from one section to another 
within the community is quite as disturbing to neighborhood 
association as is movement from one community to another. In 
order to get an idea of the comparative mobility of the population 
of the various local areas in Columbus, a study was made of the 
changes in the lists of the registered electors during the period of 
one year. The records of each year’s registration are listed by 
precincts by the city’s Board of Elections. The 1917 list of names 
was compared with the 1918 list, and the percentage of names per 
precinct of the 1917 list that reappeared in the 1918 list was taken as 
a measure of the relative stability of the precinct. For example, 
if a certain precinct had 100 registered electors for 1917 and only 
75 of these names reappeared in the 1918 list the percentage 
stability of that precinct would be rated as 75. The city is divided 
into 262 precincts, each of which comprises about two or three 
blocks. The average registered electorate per precinct was, in 
1918, 175. From this small geographical unit it is possible to get 
a rather intimate knowledge of the extent of local mobility of 
population. 

Taking the city as a whole, only 58.6 per cent of the registered 
electors of 1917 re-registered in 1918. In other words, of the quali¬ 
fied voters of 1917, almost one-half failed to requalify to vote in 
their old precincts in 1918. The percentage of registration of 
electors varies greatly, of course, in the different sections of the 
city, precincts ranging from 31.0 per cent to 77.8 per cent. The 
most mobile precinct is located in Ward 9 near the Scioto River, 
while the most stable precinct lies in the center of the old German 
neighborhood in the northern corner of Ward 1. Map III gives the 
results of such tabulation by precincts for the entire city. 

This map gives a picture of the relative stability of different 
sections of the city when judged by the single criterion of the 

1 Graham Taylor, Religion in Social Action (1913), pp. 143-44. 


TEE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 163 

re-registration of electors. It does not show the actual extent of 
shifting of population within any particular spot. Failure to 
re-register is not definite proof that the elector has migrated from 



the confines of his precinct. He may merely have omitted to 
perform this privilege of citizenship. On the other hand, move¬ 
ments of non-citizens are not recorded in this study. But, despite 


























164 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


these limitations, I believe the method here employed furnishes 
an approximately true picture of the comparative population 
movements of different sections of the city. 

It is quite evident from this map that the down-town section, 
including the main business area and its immediately surrounding 
territory, is by far the most mobile part of the city. But this is 
to be expected, considering the nature of this section. As we have 
already seen, most of the people living near the business center 
are of the boarding-house and cheap hotel class. The more stable 
parts of the city are to be found, for the most part, in the better 
residential districts, in the eastern, northern, and western ex¬ 
tremities of the city. The large German neighborhood, lying 
immediately south of the main business section, practically all 
falls in the class of highest stability, while the industrial area, 
located farther south in Ward 1, comprises one of the most mobile 
sections of Columbus. 

The correlation between stability and economic status is quite 
interesting. For ocular demonstration of this relationship the 
reader should compare Map III, page 163, with Map II, page 153. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that Map III is constructed 
on the basis of a small unit, the precinct, while Map II is based 
on the ward as the unit. Now taking the ward averages for 
stability and comparing them with the ward averages for economic 
status we get the result shown in Table I. 

This table shows, in general, that stability varies directly with 
economic status. For example, Ward 9, which has the lowest 
economic status of all the wards in the city, has also the lowest 
re-registration of electors, which means the lowest stability. Like¬ 
wise, Wards 8 and 12, which are considerably below the average 
in economic status, are also below the average in stability. On the 
other hand, Wards 4, 5? and 16 fall considerably above the average 
in stability, and rank high in economic status. Wards 2 and 
3 appear to be exceptions; they have high stability and low 
economic status. But as we have already seen these wards contain 
the large stable German neighborhood, the residents of which, while 
home owners and relatively prosperous, maintain a lower standard 
of living than the average American of similar economic status. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 165 


Let us now examine the relation between mobility, dependency, 
and juvenile delinquency. The two spot maps (IV and V) facing 
page 166 show the geographical distribution of the official cases 
of dependency and juvenile delinquency for a one-year period, 
May, 1918, to May, 1919. As might be expected the majority 
of the dependency cases are segregated in the low economic areas 
surrounding the central business district. The colored cases form 
conspicuous groups near the railroad tracks and the river, also in 
the eastern part of the city near Franklin Park. 

TABLE I 

Relation between Ward Stability and Economic Status 


Ward 

Average 
Re-registration 
per Ward 
(per cent) 

Average 
Economic 
Status 
per Ward 

9 . 

43-7 

$ 34 .II 

8. 

44-4 

80.55 

12. 

50.6 

66.97 

IS. 

53-7 

147-25 

13. 

57-7 

85.80 

14.• 

57-7 

70.87 

1 . 

60.4 

92.44 

10. 

60.6 

54.66 

7 . 

60.6 

111 •55 

6.... 

61.9 

139-30 

2. 

62.9 

67.56 

16. 

63.1 

176.35 

11 . 

64.1 

85.39 

4 . 

65-3 

202.99 

5 . 

65-5 

219.89 

3 . 

66.0 

92.72 


The most striking feature concerning the geographical distribu¬ 
tion of juvenile delinquency is the rather even dispersion of cases 
throughout the entire city. Single streets or individual family 
groups rather than neighborhoods seem to form the nuclei for way¬ 
ward children. There is, apparently, but slight correlation between 
the segregation of dependency and that of delinquency. Table II 
gives more exact presentation of the facts recorded in Maps IV 

and V. 

It will be observed that Wards 8, 9, and 12, which comprise 
the central part of the city, and which rank highest in mobility, 
also rank high in extent of both dependency and delinquency; while 


























i66 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


Wards 4, 5, 15, and 16 rank high in stability and have relatively 
little dependency or delinquency. However, the relation between 
mobility and dependency is much more conspicuous than the rela¬ 
tion between mobility and delinquency. For example, Wards 13 
and 14 have almost average stability but rank highest for the whole 
city in their percentages of juvenile delinquency. These two wards 

TABLE 11 


Ward Variations in Stability, Dependency, and Juvenile Delinquency 


Ward 

Number of* 
Registered 
Voters 
for 1918 

Stability f 

Cases of 
Dependency^ 

Cases of 
Delinquency 

No. 

Percentage 

No. 

Percentage 

9 . 

1757 

43-7 

82 

4.67 

27 

1-54 

8. 

2225 

44-4 

75 

3-37 

26 

1.17 

12. 

2062 

50.6 

94 

4-56 

25 

1.21 

15 . 

2661 

53-7 

23 

.86 

12 

•45 

13 . 

3062 

57-7 

5 i 

1.67 

49 

1.60 

14 . 

2344 

57-7 

58 

2.47 

39 

1.66 

1. 

2950 

60.4 

58 

1.79 

45 

i -53 

10. 

2477 

60.6 

82 

3 - 3 i 

35 

1.41 

7 . 

2721 

60.6 

44 

1.62 

23 

.85 

6. 

2995 

61.9 

65 

2.17 

32 

1.07 

2. 

2496 

62.9 

57 

2.28 

32 

1.28 

16. 

4540 

63.1 

24 

.51 

18 

•39 

11. 

3 i 7 i 

64.1 

53 

1.67 

28 

.88 

4 . 

2884 

65-3 

56 

1.94 

19 

.66 

5 . 

3477 

65-5 

26 

•74 

12 

•35 

3. 

3635 

66.0 

45 

1.24 

34 

•94 

Total. 

45,457 


893 


456 


Average for city 

58.6 

1.97 

1.00 





* The number of registered electors furnishes our only clue to the ward populations of the city, as 
the ward boundaries have been modified since the 1910 census was taken. 

t The term “stability” implies here, as formerly, the percentage of the 1917 electors who re-registered 
in the same precincts in 1918. 

1 The cases of dependency and delinquency here recorded are known in the organizations concerned 
as “official cases,” that is, they are the more permanent and serious cases with which the organizations 
have to deal. 


happen to include industrial areas and have comparatively large 
colored and immigrant populations. 

While our method of measuring mobility does not indicate 
whether the movements of families are from one community to 
another or from one neighborhood to another within the community, 
still a few sample cases seem to show the latter type of movement 
predominates. For instance, in Ward 9, out of the total 743 
















































MAP OF 

COLUMBUS, OHIO 

SHOWING LOCATION OF 


M HOMES OF DEPENDENTS 

UNDER OFFICIAL SUPERVISION OF 


THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES 

MAY I, 1918 T o MAY I, 1919 



• Homes of Dependents (Whites). 

+ Homes of Dependents (Colored) 
® West Side Settlement House 
1^2$ Neighborhood Surveyed 
Business District. 


Map IV 




















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Broadway 


MAP OF 

COLUMBUS, OHIO 

SHOWING LOCATION OF 

HOMES OF DELINQUENTS 

UNDER OFFICIAL SUPERVISION OF 


{ THE FRANKLIN COUNTY JUVENILE COURT 

MAY I, 1918 to MAY I, 1919 


• Homes of Delinquents. 

® West Side Settlement House 
*"% Neighborhood Surveyed 


Map V 

























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 167 


registered electors for 1917 whose names reappeared in the 1918 
list, 141, or an average of 19.1 per cent, were listed with different 
street addresses within the confines of their respective precincts. 
When it is recalled that the precinct in Columbus comprises a very 
small area of but one or two city blocks, it is obvious that quite a 
considerable amount of mobility is from house to house within 
the same neighborhood. Another sounding was taken in Ward 16, 
an area of higher economic status. All the families in a single 
block were canvassed. Of the fifty-one families visited eleven 
had been on the street less than one year, thirty-two less than 
five years, and the remainder from five to ten years. Forty-one 
families had moved to the street from some other section of Colum¬ 
bus and of this number twenty-eight had moved to the street from 
the immediately surrounding neighborhood. 

Again there is a type of mobility that is not indicated by change 
of residence, but which is almost as significant from the standpoint 
of neighborhood life. This is measured by the ability of the 
individual, due to modern methods of communication, to utilize 
the larger social environment afforded by the community as a whole. 
The automobile, street car, telephone, and press, together with 
increased leisure time, have all contributed greatly to the break¬ 
down of neighborhood ties. Moreover, the disintegrating effects 
of these modern means of communication are not confined to the 
city alone. They have equal significance with reference to life 
in the country. To quote Cooley: 

In our own life the intimacy of the neighborhood has been broken up by 
the growth of an intricate mesh of wider contacts which leaves us strangers 
to people who live in the same house. And even in the country the same 
principle is at work, though less obviously, diminishing our economic and 
spiritual community with our neighbors. 1 

Warren Wilson says: 

In those states in which the trolley system has been extended into the 
country, for instance Ohio and Indiana, the process of weakening the country 
population has been hastened. Sunday becomes for country people a day 
for visiting the town and in great numbers they gather at the interurban 
stations. The city and town on Sunday is filled with careless, hurrying groups 
of visitors, sight-seers and callers, who have no such fixed interest as that 

1 Social Organization (1912), p. 26. 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


168 

expressed in church-going or in substantial social processes. For the time 
being interurban trolley lines have dissipated the life of the country 
communities. 

Referring to the use of the telephone and rural free delivery 
Wilson continues: 

The old acquaintance and the intimate social relations of the country 
community have not been helped by the telephone: and along with the pres¬ 
ence of aliens in the community, one quarter or one half or three quarters of 
the population, the telephone has had the effect of lowering the standards of 
intimacy and separating the households in the country from one another. 
The Rural Free Delivery has put the country people into the general world 
economy and for the time being has loosened the bonds of community life. 1 

It is an obvious fact that in isolated rural communities or 
backward city neighborhoods where the telephone has not become 
an instrument of common usage and where poverty restricts the 
use of secondary means of transportation, or where linguistic barriers 
prevent communication with the outside world; in such neighbor¬ 
hoods are to be found the best examples of the old neighborly forms 
of association. I shall, however, reserve for a later chapter the 
discussion of the influences of secondary means of communication 
upon social life in a city neighborhood. 


1 The Evolution of the Country Community, p. 128. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE IN 
THE CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 


r. d. McKenzie 

University of Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Meaning of the concept neighborhood. It is difficult to define the neighborhood in 
the modern city. Interpretations of neighborhood made by various scholars seem 
to include three elements: spatial proximity to some focus of attention; physical or 
cultural differentiation from surrounding areas; intimacy of association among the 
inhabitants of the area. History of the neighborhood. Primitive peoples for the most 
part live in small territorial societies. The village community type of social organiza¬ 
tion represents the dominance of neighborhood over kinship as a bond of union. The 
ancient city was frequently but a federation of small locality groups. Even the 
modern city grows, as a rule, by the inclusion of small suburban communities, many 
of which retain their local self-consciousness for years after incorporation. Elements 
of neighborhood association. Cooley refers to the neighborhood as the universal 
nursery of the primary human ideals, such as kindness, loyalty, self-sacrifice, etc.; 
however hostility as well as mutual aid may flourish in neighborhood association. 
Common sense conception of city neighborhood. Students in Columbus defined neighbor¬ 
hood as the small personal area immediately surrounding their homes. Organized 
neighborhoods in Columbus. Several different streets of the city have developed local 
organizations for the promotion of local interests, such as street beautification, pro¬ 
tection from industrial encroachments, and the encouragement of sociability. A 
study of these organizations shows that they are largely the products of the initiative 
and industry of a few individuals or families on each street. 


III. THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

The general effect of the continuous sifting and sorting of a city’s 
population, as we have seen in the foregoing chapters, is to produce 
a patchwork of local areas differentiated from one another by cul¬ 
tural, racial, or linguistic peculiarities. In common parlance such 
areas are usually designated as localities, districts, colonies, or 
neighborhoods. Since the neighborhood is one of our oldest social 
institutions and since it is again coming into the focus of attention 
of writers on urban questions, 1 let us briefly examine its applicability 
to local life in the city environment. 

Probably no other term is used so loosely or with such changing 
content as the term neighborhood, and very few concepts are more 

1 See, e.g., such recent books as M. P. Follett’s The New State (1918), and John 
Daniel’s America via the Neighborhood (1920). 


344 





THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 345 


difficult to define. The word neighborhood has two general connota¬ 
tions: physical proximity to a given object of attention, and inti¬ 
macy of association among people living in close proximity to one 
another. On the flat plains of the agricultural states there are no 
objective marks by means of which the stranger can distinguish one 
rural neighborhood from another, yet almost any individual ap¬ 
proached can give a very definite answer as to what constitutes his 
neighborhood; it simply embraces the area round about his home 
in which reside those families with whom he has intimate and 
direct personal relations. 

In the city, on the other hand, there are very distinct objective 
differences between the various residential areas, but little or no 
personal acquaintance or group association among the families of 
any particular area. It is on account of these peculiarities of city 
life that we find so many different usages of the term neighborhood. 
Some writers are accustomed to use the word as implying mere 
physical proximity to a certain institution or topographical feature. 1 
Others refer to the neighborhood as a cultural area, 2 sufficiently 
differentiated from the surrounding territory to be considered as a 
unit, while others again use the word in its traditional sense as 
implying intimacy of association 3 and personal acquaintance. 

1 Stuckenberg, Sociology, I (1903), 81. 

2 Park defines the neighborhood, “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of 
Human Behavior in the City Environment” {American Journal of Sociology , XX, 
579), as “a locality with sentiments, traditions, and a history of its own.” 

3 Cooley lists the neighborhood as an example of a “primary group” (see Social 
Organization , chap, iii) and he defines a “primary group” elsewhere {Amer. Jour, of 
Sociol., XXV, 327) as, “an intimate group, the intimacy covering a considerable 
period and resulting in a habitual sympathy, the mind of each being filled with a 
sense of the mind of the others, so that the group as a whole is the chief sphere of the 
social self for each individual in it of emulation, ambition, resentment, loyalty, etc.” 
Kellogg in a rather vague way says, “the neighborhood is an intermediate group 
between the family and the city, among those communal organizations in which 
people live as distinct from purposeful organisations in which they work {Charities and 
Correction [1909], p. 176). Taylor {Religion in Social Action, p. 166) states that 
“the neighborhood is to be regarded as an extension of the home and the church, 
and is identified closely with both.” Wood refers to the neighborhood {Amer. Jour, 
of Sociol., XIX, 580), as “the most satisfactory and illuminating form of the social 
extension of personality, of the interlacing and comprehensive complex of the interplay 
of personalities; the social unit which can by its clear definition of outline, its inner 
organic completeness, its hair-trigger reactions, be fairly considered as functioning 


346 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


The concept neighborhood has come down to us from a distant 
past and therefore has connotations which scarcely fit the facts 
when applied to a patch of life in a modern large city. As far back 
as we have record human society seems to have been composed of 
a vast number of small intimate groups more or less definitely 
attached to fixed localities. 

W. G. Sumner says ( Folkways , p. 12), “The concept of ‘primitive 
society’ which we ought to form is that of small groups scattered 
over a territory.” Most of the native peoples of the present day 
live in small neighborhood groups knit together by notions of kin¬ 
ship, common custom, and local feeling. The Dyaks of Borneo 
live in small villages, “each of which is inhabited by a dozen 
families and sometimes by several hundred persons, peacefully 
living together” (P. Kropotkin, Mutual Aid [1907], p. no). “The 
Arunta of Central Australia are distributed in a large number of 
small local groups, each of which occupies a given area of country 
and has its own headman .... and the members of each group 
are bound together by a strong ‘local feeling’” (Edward Wester- 
marck, Moral Ideas , Vol. II [1908], 199). L. T. Hobhouse relates 
that “ the Yahgans .... live in small groups of three or four fami¬ 
lies, without any regular clan organization, though with fairly well 
established customs to which the feeling of the community lends 
support, a support which is frequently vindicated by force of 

arms.The Veddahs consist of a mere handful of scattered 

families living sometimes in trees, in the rainy season often in 
caves, though they are capable of making primitive huts. They 
are hunters, and each Veddah, with his wife and family, keeps 
his hunting ground for the most part scrupulously to himself” 
{Morals in Evolution [1906], Part 1, pp. 43-47). Referring to the 
Yakuts of Siberia Sumner says (quoted by Thomas, Social Origins, 
p. 83), “The largest number of settlements contain four or five huts, 
with twenty or thirty souls.” Similar examples might be added 
indefinitely. 


like a social mind.” Sanderson {Publications of American Sociological Society , XIV, 
86-87), distinguishes between the community and the neighborhood as follows: 
“the community is the smallest geographical unit of organized association of the 
chief human activities} .... the neighborhood is the smallest association group of 
families, with regard to place; it has no organization of activities.” 




THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 347 


The group forming habit of human beings is, of course, a 
biological inheritance from our prehuman ancestors. As Shaler 
says ( The Neighbor , pp. 52-53), “the tribal habit of man is not an 
invention made by him. It evidently was inherited from his 
ancestors of the lower life, for among all the Quadrumana clearly 
to be reckoned his collateral but near organic and psychic kins¬ 
men, this social habit prevails. The creatures usually dwell in 
groups which are evidently held together by a sympathetic bond, 
and are in more or less hostile relations to other groups of the same 
or diverse species, so that we may regard the tribal motive as even 
more affirmed than it could have been by human experience. ” 

As long as primitive groups lived in a more or less migratory 
fashion the conception of common kinship, whether fictitious or 
real, seems to have been the dominant bond of union. But with 
the development of more stable modes of life within definite ter¬ 
ritorial locations the bond of kinship gradually becomes replaced 
by the bond of neighborhood. Maine says {Early History of 
Institutions [1875], p. 72), “I think, upon trustworthy evidence, 
that, from the moment when a tribal community settles down 
finally upon a definite space of land, the Land begins to be the 
basis of society in place of the Kinship.” 

The universality of the village community form of social 
organization has been well attested by Maine, Gomme, and others. 
Outside of the large cities the village community comprises the 
leading mode of social life for the peoples of all eastern countries. 
Moreover the present Russian mir, the Polish zadruga, and the 
Swiss canton, all present many of the characteristics of their eastern 
prototypes. Furthermore, to quote W. G. Sumner {The Challenge 
of Facts and Other Essays, p. 314), “the picture presented by the 
settlements in this country until the beginning of the eighteenth 
century was that of little groups of farmers scattered along the 
coast and rivers, forming towns under the loosest possible organiza¬ 
tion.” These early villages, of course, formed the nuclei of our 
well-known New England town system. 

Even with the development of city life the small neighborhood 
units tend to persist within the larger corporations. “The ancient 
city of Teheran .... was divided into twelve districts, almost 
totally isolated from one another and permanently at variance with 


348 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


one another” (R. M. Maciver, Community , p. 251). The same 
tendency is seen in Rome whose seven hills formed seven distinct 
neighborhoods. De Coulanges in The Ancient City shows that the 
Greek city was but a federation of local groups, each of which had 
its own religious and civil independence, and acted as a unit resent¬ 
ing interference on the part of the larger community. Of course 
similar tendencies toward local autonomy may be witnessed con¬ 
stantly in our own cities at the present time. Our cities grow by the 
inclusion of “satellite communities” and frequently such commu¬ 
nities refuse to become absorbed in the larger corporations, and 
usually after surrendering their political autonomy retain for years 
a strong local consciousness and social independence. 

In its traditional application the term neighborhood stood for 
rather definite group sentiments, which were the products of the 
intimate personal relations among the members of the small iso¬ 
lated communities of which society was formerly composed. The 
primary face-to-face associations of the traditional neighborhood 
group formed a universal nursery for what Cooley calls “the 
primary ideals,” such as loyalty, truth, service, and kindness. 1 

Small homogeneous societies, such as the Russian mir , the 
Polish zadruga, or the isolated rural village, furnish our best exam¬ 
ples of primary groups, that is of groups with a single set of defini¬ 
tions of life to which all the members adhere with an emotional 
unanimity. The ideas pertaining to group welfare have dominance 
over individual wishes, consequently there is a minimum amount of 
individuality when compared with life in a modern city. The 
solidarity of the traditional neighborhood is of the spontaneous 
unreflective type. 2 It is the result of common human nature 
responding to common stimuli. The relation between individuals 
of the group is that of equality. Referring to the early village life 
in this country, Sumner says (op. cit., p. 296), “It is plain that 
equality is the prevailing characteristic of this society; its members 
are equal in fortune, in education, in descent (at least after a genera¬ 
tion or two), in mode of life, in social standing, in range of ideas, 
in political importance, and in everything else which is social, and 

1 Social Organization, chap. iv. 

2 See James Mark Baldwin, The Individual and Society, chap, ii, 1911. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 349 


nobody made them so .” Wood, in recounting the personal traits of 
our modern professional neighbor, the city boss, expresses a similar 
idea (Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XIX, 580), “The local boss, however 
autocratic he may be in the larger sphere of the city with the power 
which he gets from the neighborhood, must always be in and of the 
local people: and he is always very careful not to try to deceive the 
local people so far as their distinctively local interests are concerned. 
It is hard to fool a neighborhood about its own neighborhood 
affairs.” It is this insistence upon social equality among neighbors 
that deters the development of latent leadership in our rural 
communities. 1 

The solidarity of the traditional neighborhood included physical 
as well as social objects. The old swimming pool, the familiar 
hills and trees, the architecture and location of buildings, all 
function as sentimental attachments of the neighborhood. The 
individual becomes so closely identified with all these objects of 
early and intimate contact that they tend to form a part of the 
“extended self.” Dr. W. I. Thomas, 2 in discussing the efforts of 
Germany to Prussianize Poland, says, “If the primary group is 
distinguished by face-to-face and sentimental relations I think it 
is correct to say that the land of the peasant was included in his 
group. And this land sentiment is the most important factor in 
the failure up to date of the plans of the colonization commission.” 
Attachment for locality is even today a significant force in the 
segregation of a city’s population. 

Loyalty, self-sacrifice, and service are the natural products of 
the intimate personal neighborhood groups. As Tufts says, kind¬ 
ness suggests kinness, and applied originally to members of the 
“ we-group ” only. 3 Kropotkin, in his Mutual Aid furnishes us with 
a vast array of evidence concerning the reciprocal kindness of 
members of primitive communities. Sumner describes (quoted by 
Thomas, Social Origins, p. 79) the neighborly relations of the 
Yakuts of northern Siberia: “If one man’s cow calves earlier than 

those of the others, custom requires that he shall share cream and 

/ 

1 See an article by G. Walter Fiske, Publications of Amer. Sociol. Society , XI, 59. 

2 Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XIX, 632. 

3 Cf. Tufts, Our Democracy, Its Origins and Its Tasks, chap. iii. 


350 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


milk with those neighbors who at that time have none.” Cooley 
says {Social Organization, p. 38), “One is never more human, and, 
as a rule, never happier, than when he is sacrificing his narrow and 
merely private interest to the higher call of the congenial group.” 
In his book The American Town (1906), p. 32, J. M. Williams de¬ 
scribes the typical relationship between neighbors as follows: “A 
man must stand ready to help his neighbor as well as himself. Thus, 
when two woodsmen were working independently in adjoining 
wood-lots, each would impulsively run to the help of the other as 
he struggled to ‘skid’ a log upon a bob-sled. Til help you and you 

help me in return ’ represents the complete relation.To be so 

‘ close-fisted ’ as to fail of generosity in time of a neighbor’s need 
was bad enough, but to fail to return, when needed, help generously 
extended, was meanness too abject for expression.” 

Of course social friction and petty jealousies are as much the 
products of neighborhood association as are self-sacrifice and 
mutual aid. As E. C. Hayes 1 says, “While instinctive cohesion 
is stronger in small groups, so also is personal friction greater, and 
the members of a small group much in spatial proximity must have 
more in common in order to render their union permanent and 
strong, than is required to bind together larger populations.” 

In order to get an expression of the common-sense conception of 
the neighborhood within the city, I had the students in my classes 
at Ohio State University, who were residents of Columbus, write 
answers to the following questions: “Draw a map of that part of 
your city which you consider to be your neighborhood. Indicate 
on the map the location of your home, and state the number of 
years you have lived there. Give your reasons for bounding 
your neighborhood as you do.” The following statements are 
typical of the fifty-seven replies analyzed : 

(1) These are the streets I traverse oftenest. (2) On these streets live the 
people with whom I am acquainted and associate. (3) When we get in this 
part of town we feel that we are getting near home. (4) I consider this my 
neighborhood because it includes the houses nearest my home and because 
I know most of the families in this vicinity very intimately. (5) These are the 
streets that I used to play in and I still know most of the families residing here. 


1 Introduction to Sociology , p. 76. 



THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 351 


(6) To my mind the word neighborhood includes the people right around my 
house; it is the vicinity very near. (7) We speak of anything happening within 
a square of our home as being in our neighborhood but we do not know half of 
the people who live there. We have lived on this street six years. (8) I used 
to play with the children from most of these families [that is, families within an 
area of about a block and a half on the same street]; my small brother made 
me acquainted with others. I have lived here nine years. (9) Neighborhood to 
me means the people living in the same block we live in, those across the alley 
in the rear, and those living in the block across the street. (10) I consider the 
cross streets as the boundary of our neighborhood, the streets being so wide, 
especially where I live, that we do not recognize the people on the other side. 
I have lived here fourteen years. (11) I consider that this constitutes our neigh¬ 
borhood [an area of a couple of blocks] because these are the families that we 
come in contact with most frequently on the street car and at community gather¬ 
ings. (12) I consider these particular streets my neighborhood because gener¬ 
ally they are the only surrounding scene and the only people with whom we 
come in daily contact. (13) I have no particular reason for using this boundary 
as the boundary of our neighborhood except that it is the block in which we 
live, the families here are not of the sociable type; I have lived here four years. 
(14) I should say that my immediate neighborhood consists of the two southeast 
and southwest blocks; while the block at the northwest is also my neighbor¬ 
hood it is not my immediate neighborhood because we do not associate with 
these people and the spirit of the two factions is different. I have lived in 
this section for six years. (15) I consider my immediate neighborhood 
around the square S. to M. avenues since that is where I have lived the last 
five years. I think this is my neighborhood because we meet these people 
oftener and feel that we know them better. 

From a consideration of these statements and from an examina¬ 
tion of the maps which accompanied them, it is clear to me that the 
conception which the average city dweller holds of his own neighbor¬ 
hood is that of a very small area within the immediate vicinity of 
his home, the limits of which seem to be determined by the extent 
of his personal observations and daily contacts. 

But in referring to neighborhoods in general in Columbus much 
larger areas seem to be implied, spatial proximity to some central 
focus of attention being the determining feature. For example it 
is local custom to speak of “Indianola,” “Glen Echo,” “The 
Hilltop,” “West Side,” etc., as various neighborhoods within the 
city, although each of these areas embraces many streets and con¬ 
tains thousands of people. What then is the city neighborhood ? 
For certain administrative purposes it is important to consider these 


352 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


larger geographical expressions as units of neighborhood interest, 
while for other purposes, where intensity of social opinion counts, 
the smaller nuclei of common life may prove more effective units. 

The segregation of the population within a city along racial, economic, 
social, and vocational lines, tends to give to different local areas at least an 
external coloring which enables one to draw more or less definite lines of demar- 
kation between them. In the course of time these different areas acquire a sort 
of homogeneity and a historical continuity which develops a rudimentary sense 
of self-consciousness. This self-consciousness is usually enhanced if the area 
acquires a name designating its chief feature of attention, such as Niggertown, 
Fly town, Little Italy, etc. Such areas are, as a rule, in constant process of 
change, but since their selective influences attract about the same class of 
people from year to year their external aspects maintain a somewhat regular 
form. While districts of this sort vary greatly in size and in social solidarity, 
and while they may possess but few of the characteristics of the traditional 
neighborhood, nevertheless they possess sufficient significance from the stand¬ 
point of social selection, and have sufficient importance in community organiza¬ 
tion to warrant some such characterization as the term neighborhood. 

If we consider the neighborhood then in this more general sense 
as representing a patch of common life within the larger community, 
which is sufficiently differentiated from the city as a whole to be 
thought of as a unit, we have several different types of neighbor¬ 
hoods represented in Columbus. Taking as our criterion for the 
classification of these neighborhoods, the chief element in population 
selection, we have three grades of economic neighborhoods, 1 that 

1 Consult Map II, p. 153, “Economic Areas in Columbus,” for the locations of these 
different economic neighborhoods. It will be observed that, with but one exception, 
the south side, the economic status of the wards increases as one goes from the center 
out toward the periphery of the city. In fact the most exclusive neighborhoods all lie 
beyond the corporation limits. On the east side the suburban village of Bexley is the 
restricted area for the city’s social elite. For many years Columbus has vainly sought 
to have this village enter the corporation, but up to date the villagers have preferred 
their local autonomy to the anonymity of city life. On the uplands, just beyond the 
western extremity of the city, are three other exclusive residential villages, Grand View 
Heights, Marble Cliff, and Upper Arlington. These villages are all of comparatively 
recent origin and the real estate restrictions limit the population to the wealthy home- 
owning class. Local consciousness is quite pronounced in all three and several experi¬ 
ments in community enterprises have been introduced, such as the local paper, the 
community church, the community kitchen, etc. 

Another new residential section of the more exclusive type is fast developing just 
beyond the northern limits of the city. Many new additions have been opened up in 
this vicinity during the past few years and the Highlands east of the Olentangy River 
are rapidly becoming adorned with beautiful homes and picturesque gardens. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 353 


is, areas representing three fairly distinct economic divisions. 
These may be grouped as poor, middle class, and wealthy residential 
districts. 

On the other hand, we have distinct racial and national groups 
where the chief elements in population selection are consciousness of 
kind, common language, and traditions. These are represented in 
Columbus by the large negro neighborhood on East Long Street, 
by the mixed Hebrew and colored neighborhood immediately east 
of the central part of the city, and by the homogeneous German 
neighborhood on South High Street. 

In the third place we have the industrial neighborhood, in which 
reside the employees of a large industry, as, for example, the “ South 
Side Neighborhood” surrounding the Columbus Steel Works, the 
chief factor in social selection being convenience to place of employ¬ 
ment. Such neighborhoods usually represent a mixture of racial 
and national groups. 

Again we may classify neighborhoods according to the status 
of their historical development into nascent, self-conscious, and 
disintegrating neighborhoods. 1 Like all other social groups, city 
neighborhoods are ever in a process of change. Fluctuations in 
rental and land values, due to the vacillation of city life, produce 
continuous movements of population from one section of the city 
to another, thus changing the economic and racial complexion of 
neighborhoods within a comparatively short space of time. 2 

The city neighborhood differs considerably from its traditional 
prototype in that it represents a much more selected social group. 
Economic, racial, and cultural forces, by distributing the population 
into different residential sections, give to the city neighborhood an 
external appearance of homogeneity that is not frequently found 
in small villages or rural neighborhoods—a homogeneity, however, 
as we shall see later, which is more apparent than real. Racial 
prejudice, national clannishness, and class conflict, all function as 

1 See Robert E. Park, op. cit., p. 581. 

2 This is especially true with respect to immigrant neighborhoods. The economic 
progress of the immigrant is faster, as a rule, than that of the slum-dwelling American; 
consequently more immigrants than Americans graduate from the poorer neighbor¬ 
hoods. The district surrounding the Godman Guild Settlement House of Columbus 
has, according to the Settlement head, changed its immigrant population several 
times during the past decade. 


354 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


social forces to give the city neighborhood what self-consciousness 
or solidarity it may possess. 

IV. EXPERIMENTS IN NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATION 

The city of Columbus offers a number of rather unusual exam¬ 
ples of the spontaneous development of local sentiment. In addi¬ 
tion to the local improvement associations which have been 
organized in each of the larger local divisions of the city for the 
purpose of directing the general business interests, several streets 
have formed organizations to promote the interests of the residents 
on a single street or city block. Some of these organizations have 
interesting histories, and as experiments in the development of 
local sentiment are worthy of consideration. As far as can be 
ascertained these local organizations are all confined to the northern 
and western sections of the city, regions which are comparatively 
new, and for the most part occupied by home-owners. 

Oakland Avenue Flower and Garden Club . 1 —Oakland Avenue is 
located near the center of the sixteenth ward, a few blocks north of 
the university campus. The part of the street that is organized 
extends from High Street on the west to Indianola Avenue on the 
east—a distance of about a quarter of a mile. The street is now 
thirteen years old, having been held in reserve by a real estate firm 
while the surrounding area was built up. A number of property 
restrictions have given a physical uniformity to the street and at 
the same time made for a selection of population. There is a 
building restriction ranging from $2,500 to $3,000 (pre-war prices) 
as a minimum cost per residence. The lots are wide and the homes 
are required to be built thirty feet back from the curb line, thus 
leaving a uniformly wide space for lawns and shrubs. Double 
dwellings and apartment houses are forbidden, also places of 
business. 

The street became formally organized in the spring of 1912, the 
year of the Columbus Centennial. During that spring the Colum¬ 
bus Flower and Garden Club was formed in order to promote 
general interest in city beautification. A prize was offered for the 

1 See Map I, p. 148, for the locations of each of the neighborhoods described in this 
chapter. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 355 


best-kept street in the city. Under the capable direction of one of 
the leading residents of the street, the “ Oakland Flower and Garden 
Club” was organized. Meetings of the residents were held in the 
Northwood School, located at the foot of the street, with the result 
that an enthusiastic program for street beautification was adopted. 
Large granite bowlders were erected at both ends of the street, 
giving it an individuality and prominence apart from the general 
neighborhood. Uniformity in design of lawn decoration was 
adopted with the result that, at the end of the year, the citizens 
of the street celebrated the jubilee of being the proud winners of the 
civic prize for the most beautiful street in the city. Meanwhile a 
local paper, the Oakland Avenue News, was periodically published 
and distributed to all the families on the street. 

The enthusiasm engendered by this successful start has never 
quite died out although it has diminished in intensity and has 
required careful fanning on the part of a few indomitable spirits 
whose interest in the success of the undertaking has remained 
unabated. Although a comparatively stable street, the extent of 
change of residence has been one of the chief causes of the fluctuat¬ 
ing interest in the organization. Of the eighty-five families whose 
names were listed in the street directory published in the Oakland 
Avenue News for September, 1913, thirty-eight had moved from the 
street before June, 1918—a period of five years. 

The organization, designed primarily to promote street beautifi¬ 
cation, subsequently gave rise to many local activities of a social 
and neighborly nature, among which may be. mentioned the admir¬ 
able practice of sending floral tributes to neighbors in case of 
sickness or death; social picnics in which all families on the street 
participate, ladies’ clubs, and a renowned bowling team, composed 
of male residents of the street. 

Northwood Avenue Flower and Garden Club. —Northwood 
Avenue, which lies next to, and runs parallel with, the street just 
described, supports a similar organization. In fact I might have 
described the two streets together, were it not for the strong neigh¬ 
borly rivalry and unitary group character of each. Northwood has 
a physical basis for group life precisely similar to that of Oakland 
Avenue. It formed a part of the same real estate division and, 


356 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


therefore, was subjected to the same street restrictions. Its street 
organization was motivated by the same cause as that of Oakland 
Avenue but did not start off under quite such propitious circum¬ 
stances. It took the Northwood residents a bit longer to get into 
teamlike action, but once started their organization has retained 
its health and vitality even better than that of its rival. 

In the spring of 1917, with the assistance of some of my students, 
I made a brief study of the Northwood organization in order to get 
some clues respecting the nature of its group life. Every home on 
the street was visited with a brief questionnaire. I shall succinctly 
summarize here the results of our findings at that time. Question¬ 
naires were filled out by fifty-one families. Of these eleven had 
been living on the street less than one year, thirty-two less than five 
years, and the remainder from five to ten years. All but three of 
the male heads of households were native-born Americans, and 
thirty-seven of the fifty-one male heads were born in the state of 
Ohio, six of whom were born in Columbus. 

In reply to the question, “Why did you select this street as a 
place of residence?” fourteen said that it was on account of the 
attractive features of the street; another fourteen said it was 
because the house suited them; twenty could give no particular 
reason for their decision; while three maintained that their selection 
was due to the presence of friends and relatives on the street. 
Moreover, thirty-two families stated that they knew nothing of the 
street organization, prior to taking up residence there, while the 
remaining nineteen families were familiar with the social activities 
of the street and were more or less attracted to it on that account. 

With respect to intimacy and personal acquaintance, nine 
families stated that they did not have even a speaking acquaintance 
with any other family on the street; thirty-five families reported 
that they had a speaking acquaintance with more than ten families 
on the street; while seven reported that they had a speaking 
acquaintance with more than thirty families. Six families stated 
that they were related, either by blood or marriage, to one or more 
other families on the street. 

Of the male heads of households twelve reported no affiliation 
with community clubs or fraternal orders of any sort; twenty-three 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 357 


were members of but one fraternal organization; while sixteen 
belonged to two or more clubs. As regards religious affiliations, 
eleven different sects were represented, including membership or 
attendance at twenty-four different churches. Moreover, the 
leading bread winners were distributed among twenty-eight dif¬ 
ferent forms of occupation, and of these only nine reported drawing 
any clientage from the immediate neighborhood. 

An effort was made to sound the attitudes of the different 
householders toward their street organization and its leading func¬ 
tions. Of the fifty-one families, twenty stated that they had never 
attended any of the street’s meetings; thirty-nine considered the 
organization definitely worth supporting; of these, twenty con¬ 
sidered its main value to be the promotion of friendship and neigh¬ 
borly feeling, while the remaining nineteen valued it chiefly from 
the standpoint of its effect upon property values. Twelve families 
did not consider the organization worthy of support. Concerning 
the street practice of sending flowers to neighbors in the event of 
sickness or death, twenty-nine families reported having received 
such floral tributes, and all but four indicated positive appreciation 
of the custom and thought it should be continued. 

Turning now to a consideration of the street paper, the North- 
wood Avenue Bulletin , this little paper has been published at irregu¬ 
lar intervals ever since 1912. It is an unusually attractive little 
sheet containing many interesting views of the street and supplying 
information with respect to gardening and other matters of family 
interest. It also carries a page headed “Neighborhood Happen¬ 
ings,” under which are listed news items pertaining to the people 
of the street. This paper represents the idea of one or two enthu¬ 
siastic promoters and has been published at a loss to the few people 
most intimately concerned. An effort was made to ascertain the 
attitudes of the householders toward this paper, with the interesting 
result that forty-two of the fifty-one families were strong in their 
approval of it and considered that its publication should be 
continued. 

Although a few of the families residing on this street at the time 
the above survey was made were opposed to any attempts to start 
“this small town stuff” in the city, still all but five maintained that 


358 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


it would cause them considerable regret to have to leave the street. 
Many families who stated that they had not the time to participate 
actively in the work of the street organization nevertheless indorsed 
the movement as being distinctly meritorious. 

Ninth Avenue neighborhood .—Another interesting example of 
local manifestation of neighborhood sentiment and one which 
has been brought to the attention of the citizens of Columbus for 
the past decade or so is that of the residents of West Ninth Avenue. 
This little street, only two short blocks in length, is located close to 
the southwest corner of the university campus, in Ward 15. 
The Neil Avenue street-car line forms the eastern boundary of the 
neighborhood and the university farm borders it on the west. 

Unlike the streets just described, the Ninth Avenue neighbor¬ 
hood supports no formal organization or street paper, but for years 
past the residents of the street have shown evidence of a distinct 
group feeling which reaches its highest culmination every year in a 
Fourth of July celebration. At this time the street is roped off 
from city traffic and all the residents of the block participate in a 
general street picnic, followed in the evening by a display of fire¬ 
works, which has become a tradition in the local life of the com¬ 
munity. The street is much shorter than either of the others de¬ 
scribed, making it unnecessary to develop secondary means of 
communication, such as the local newspaper. 

In physical appearance the street differs considerably from the 
surrounding area. In the first place it is built up with a distinctly 
superior type of residence from that found in the neighboring 
locality, the assessed value of the homes ranging from $4,000 to 
$15,000. The lawns are spacious and uniformly deep, lending a 
unitary character to the street. 

In our brief study of this street we found that its group life 
depended very largely upon the energetic activities of a single 
family. The head of this household and his wife make a hobby of 
fostering neighborhood sentiment among the residents of the street. 
The meetings that are held to plan entertainments, etc., are usually 
conducted at this man’s residence. 

In addition to the club life that prevails among the residents of 
this street, such as picnics for the children, social activities of the 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 359 


women, and quoit games among the men, various other forms of 
collective action for local purposes have taken place. For instance, 
the street has persistently acted as a unit to keep its western vista 
over the university farm free from obstruction. It has also had 
several experiments in corporate action in fighting the intrusion of 
objectionable structures within its limits. 

Glenmawr Avenue Improvement Association .—This little neigh¬ 
borhood is located in an attractive spot near the northern end of the 
sixteenth ward. The nature of this community and the purpose of 
its organization are well described in the following words of its 
secretary: 

There is a park thirty-five feet wide and about one thousand feet long in 
the center of Glenmawr Avenue, and when the street was improved this space 
was left by the city with no improvements whatever, not even grass. It was 
necessary for the property owners to improve the condition of this park, and, 
therefore, the organization was formed with a view to beautifying the park and 
establishing a standard in the carrying forward of any improvements on the 
street, such as placing shade trees, constructing sidewalks, placing steps from 
the street to the yard, etc. Present membership, sixty-eight families. Any 
property owner on Glenmawr Avenue or any families renting property located 
on that street are eligible to become members. 

The organization was able to have an ordinance passed through council 
permitting the placing of the sidewalks within two feet of the curb rather than 
five feet as is ordinarily required, which avoided the cutting off of the lawns, 
thus reducing the front yard space. 

The park which was simply a bare space of ground, has been made level, 
fertilized, and a good standard of grass obtained. Seventy shade trees have 
been placed along the edge of the park and between these shrubbery has been 
placed. At the ends of the park flower beds with perennial flowers are main¬ 
tained and gravel walks placed at intervals across the park to avoid persons 
having to cross from one side of the street to the other walking on the 
grass. 

An ordinance was passed last fall by the Council of the City of Columbus, 
at the suggestion of the Association, requiring the installation of five cobble¬ 
stone pillars, on which cluster lights will be installed through the center of the 
park. The grass in the park is taken care of by the residents without expense. 

This Association also endeavors to have at their business meetings social 
entertainments for the residents of the street only, and by so doing have created 
a friendly feeling among the residents that could not otherwise have existed. 

The money necessary to carry on the improvements that have been made 
in the park is obtained by assessment of the various residents of the street, the 


360 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


amount being collected without any hardship, and there is always money in 
the treasury to carry on improvements that might be authorized. 1 

The foregoing organization was formed in the spring of 1914, 
its meetings are held monthly at the home of one of the residents 
of the street. It serves an area of about two city blocks. 

The Hilltop neighborhood .—The Hilltop is more than a neigh¬ 
borhood; it is a city within a city. It is a community of about 
15,000 people, topographically separated from the city proper. It 
is an area complete in itself, having its own schools, churches, stores, 
shops, parks, fire-hall, social clubs, local newspaper, and improve¬ 
ment association, which is really equivalent to a chamber of 
commerce. 

The Hilltop, as indicated on Map I, page 148, lies in the extreme 
western end of the city, about four miles west of the state’s Capitol. 
As the name implies the Hilltop is a promontory rising considerably 
above the “flats” which separate it from the heart of the city. 
The division now comprises an area of several square miles and 
includes within its confines the State Hospital for the Insane. 

Comparatively speaking the Hilltop is a new section of Colum¬ 
bus. Its chief development as a residential area has taken place 
during the past fifteen years, but once available for settlement its 
attractive topographical features made it an eldorado for the better 
class of home-seekers, with the result that it is now a city of new 
homes clustered around the few historic residences which graced 
the landscape in days gone by. Moreover, it is a region of consider¬ 
able historic importance. Camp Chase of Civil War renown was 
located here, also the Confederate Cemetery, which lies in the 
southwestern part of the district. 

Barring a small Italian neighborhood, located on McKinley 
Avenue at the rear of the Hospital for the Insane, and a larger 
colored colony located in the south along Sullivant Avenue, the 
Hilltop is primarily inhabitated by white American stock, the 
majority of whom are home-owners of the more prosperous class. 
An astonishingly large number of the leading public men of the city 
have their homes in this region, which fact doubtlessly accounts, 
in good measure at least, for the public spirit displayed among the 
residents of the Hilltop. 

1 Letter received from the secretary, January, 1920. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 361 


The negro neighborhood, just referred to, is the “fly in the oint¬ 
ment” with respect to the community pride of the people of the 
Hilltop. This colored section, covering an area of about six blocks, 
with a population of approximately 600 people, is not a recent 
development. A number of the colored families have resided in 
this spot for over thirty years, but a fresh influx of colored settlers 
arrived immediately after the Springfield riots a decade or so ago. 
A real estate dealer, devoid of “social vision,” and “greedy for 
gain” sold his property to these people with the result that they are 
now fixtures in the community. Aside, however, from the acute 
social problems arising out of their presence in the schools, the 
colored people live to themselves and do not come in contact with 
the general social life of the community. The colored neighborhood 
has its own churches, stores, and motion-picture house, and the 
Camp Chase street-car line is used almost exclusively for transpor¬ 
tation to and from the city. This colored neighborhood is one of the 
most orderly and progressive negro localities in the city. According 
to the estimate of one of the oldest colored residents, 75 per cent of 
the families own their homes; and it is a matter of local pride 
that “no one has been sent to the penitentiary from this district 
during the past twenty-five years.” 

The local consciousness of the residents of the Hilltop has 
manifested itself in many ways. In the first place a local paper 
called the Hilltop News is published weekly and read by more than 
“eight thousand Hilltoppers every week.” This sheet is the 
“official organ of the Hilltop business men” and carries advertising 
and news items of local interest. It also serves as the official 
spokesman for the Hilltop Improvement Association, an organiza¬ 
tion of Hilltop residents designed to promote the welfare of the 
“Hilltop, its people, and their homes.” 

The Hilltop Improvement Association was organized in 1911 
for the purpose just stated. It was promoted by a number of the 
most enterprising citizens of the community including one of the 
city’s most prominent councilmen. No local organization of the 
city has been more active in the promotion of local interests, or has 
achieved more for the territory served than the Hilltop Improvement 
Association. Its field of activities has included negotiations with 
the city council for the procuring of local satisfactions, such as a 


362 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


recreation building, street-car accommodation, city deliveries, etc. 
It has also stimulated local pride in the care of property and in the 
repulsion of undesirable commercial encroachments, and at the 
same time has done much to engender a feeling of neighborliness 
and sociability among the people. 

The community consciousness among the people of the Hilltop 
is due largely to the peculiar topographical features of the district 
which give it a unitary character quite distinct from the rest of the 
city. Moreover its conflict with the city proper in regard to flood 
protection measures relative to the flood area which separates it 
from the down-town district, has resulted in the development of 
the “we feeling” as contrasted with the rest of the city. In addi¬ 
tion to this, the boosting attitude has been maintained by the 
comparatively large number of enterprising public citizens who have 
their homes in this district. These home-owners appreciate the 
significance of local community pride and consciously attempt to 
stimulate it in their locality. 

Conclusions .—From a study of these and other experiments in 
neighborhood organization, I venture the following conclusions 
concerning neighborhood work in general. First, that neighbor¬ 
hood sentiment is most easily engendered where the physical basis 
of life affords a unitary character sufficient to differentiate the neigh¬ 
borhood from the larger community. Second, neighborhood 
sentiment thrives best where there is a homogeneity and stability 
of population accompanied by a high percentage of home owner¬ 
ship. 1 Third, other things being equal, the difficulty of maintaining 
local interest in local projects varies directly with the extent of 
territory covered and the number of families included. There is 
considerable evidence to show that a street more than two blocks 
in length tends to divide itself into subgroups, especially when two 
different street-car lines are used by the residents in communication 

1 According to our general test of stability for Columbus, i.e., the percentage of 
the 1917 electors who re-registered in their respective precincts in 1918, the organized 
neighborhoods just described rank comparatively high in stability. The average 
re-registration for the entire city was 58.6 per cent and for the most stable precinct 
77.8 per cent. The precinct in which Oakland and North wood avenues are located 
had a re-registration of 75.5 per cent, the Ninth Avenue precinct a re-registration of 
69.1 per cent, and the Glenmawr precinct 64.9 per cent. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 363 


with the down-town district. Fourth, it may be stipulated that 
interest in the most obviously beneficial local enterprises, even under 
the most favorable conditions, is not as spontaneous and natural as 
many of our promoters of neighborhood enterprises seem to assume. 
In each experiment in neighborhood organization cited above, the 
interest in local affairs has been more or less artificially sustained 
by the “hard work” of a few energetic promoters. 

Nevertheless, the value of such street organization cannot be 
doubted. No one who has visited any of the streets which have 
been described would question the superior merits of corporate 
action over the haphazard ways of traditional individualism. 
Aside from the social benefits accruing from local collective action, 
the effect on real estate values is in itself an important consideration, 
and one which real estate companies are beginning to appreciate. 1 

1 1 have been informed by several residents of the streets in question that they 
have been offered valuable concessions by real estate companies to promote similar 
organizations in new residential divisions which are now being put on the market. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE IN 
THE CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 


r. d. McKenzie 

University of Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Description of neighborhood. The neighborhood is located in a flood plane near 
the center of the city. It comprises one of the oldest sections of the city and has been 
subject to periodic floods for years past. It is inhabited by working-class people, 
chiefly of American origin. Mobility of neighborhood population. The neighborhood 
serves as a reservoir for the city’s human wastes. Families come and go in constant 
succession, and there are also frequent changes of residence from street to street within 
the neighborhood. There is a small nucleus, however, of stable superior families. 
The comparative absence of secondary means of communication, such as telephones 
and automobiles, makes the less mobile inhabitants—old men, women, and children— 
completely dependent upon the neighborhood institutions for their associational life. 
Homes. Most of the homes are obsolete both in structure and fixtures; scarcely io 
per cent have electric lights: about half of them are without baths or indoor toilets. 
Overcrowding is not prevalent except in alley houses. Family life. The neighbor¬ 
hood is a collectivity of very unlike family groups. Superior wholesome families are 
frequently found living next door to disorderly worthless people. Under such circum¬ 
stances complete avoidance is practiced. The superior families usually represent 
early settlers who, on account of property ties, cannot leave their undesirable surround¬ 
ings. Economic condition. This district represents the lowest economic level in 
the city. Home ownership is uncommon, and rents average less than fifteen dollars 
per month. However there are marked differences in the comparative economic 
status of adjoining families. Family groups in the depth of poverty are frequently 
found living side by side with families having comfortable incomes. Leisure-time 
activities. Most of the homes are ill-equipped with facilities for the fruitful utilization 
of leisure time. Reading materials are scant or wanting; musical instruments are 
found only in a small percentage of the homes. Outdoor leisure-time activities. The 
movies are the most popular form of commercialized recreation for mothers and 
children. The elder males find their chief enjoyment in the neighborhood saloons, 
while the youth, for the most part, patronize the uptown poolrooms and dance halls. 


PART II. AN ANALYSIS OF A DISINTEGRATED CITY 

NEIGHBORHOOD 

V. DESCRIPTION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 

The following survey was undertaken upon the suggestion of 
the Brotherhood of the First Congregational Church of Columbus. 
For a number of years the church has been supporting a social 
settlement house, located on Broad Street, in the heart of the 
region west of the river. With a view to extending its activities 
on a more scientific and efficient scale, the Brotherhood voted in 


486 





THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 487 


the spring of 1919 that a survey of the neighborhood surrounding 
the social settlement be made and a program of action outlined in 
conformity with the findings. The writer was selected to engineer 
the survey. The field work was done by advanced students in his 
classes in sociology at the state university. 

The actual field work of the survey falls into three divisions: 
first, a house-to-house canvass of one thousand households located 
in the neighborhood just indicated. An attempt was made to 



Map VI 


reach every home in this district, but frequently the house was 
empty when the investigator called, and although second visits 
were made in most cases, still many households were thus unavoid¬ 
ably omitted. In the second place a study was made of all the 
neighborhood institutions—churches, schools, industries, and of all 
the forms of commercialized recreation. And lastly, special inter¬ 
views were held with about twenty of the oldest residents of the 
district in order to obtain data concerning the history, leading 
changes, and dominant forces in the neighborhood. 

The neighborhood that we are about to describe is located in the 
“flats” lying immediately west of the central part of the city. As 
indicated on Map VI, the region in question is bounded on 



















488 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


three sides by a loop of the Scioto River. It comprises a low 
flood plane stretching west in triangular shape for about three 
miles to the Hilltop district. The eastern end of the district, or 
apex of the triangle, is less than a quarter of a mile in width, while 
the western base is about two miles wide. This district has been 
subject to periodic floods, occurring, according to reports of the 
oldest inhabitants, about every fifteen years. The most serious of 
these floods, in the memory of the oldest residents, took place in 
the spring of 1913 when the entire eastern half of the district was 
for a few days covered by water from six to ten feet in depth. 

This neighborhood comprises one of the oldest sections of the 
city of Columbus. The central part of it was originally known as 
the village of Franklin ton; the old county court building was 
located at the corner of Sandusky and Broad streets, the present 
site of the Franklin ton School. Sullivant Avenue, the southern 
boundary line of the neighborhood, is named after Lucas Sullivant, 
the original owner of the “bottoms” lying west of the river. In 
the early days this district was so swampy and so undesirable for 
habitation that Mr. Sullivant gave lots to settlers to induce them 
to come and reside there. Hence Gift Street got the name it 
still retains. 

The neighborhood was originally inhabited by “plain working 
people.” Broad Street was the main thoroughfare and, in the 
opinion of many of the old timers, did a much more flourishing 
business twenty years ago than it does at present. The eastern 
section of the neighborhood, lying immediately west of the river, 
was, in the early days, known as “Middletown” and was considered 
by the people living farther west as a “rough” section. The local 
differentiation has, however, faded away; only a few of the old 
settlers seem to be familiar with the implication of the early local 
distinction. 

There is general consensus of opinion among the older settlers 
that the neighborhood made a rapid decline immediately following 
the flood of 1913. At that time many of the more prosperous 
families moved to other parts of the city, especially to the new 
addition opened up just then on the Hilltop. Real estate prices 
declined rapidly, dropping to one-third or one-half their previous 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 489 


values. This in turn brought about an influx of colored and poor 
white families, with the consequent further deterioration of the 
neighborhood. 

The area surveyed includes eleven precincts, which in 1918 had 
a total registered electorate of 1,824/ The city’s registered elec¬ 
torate for that year was 45,854, or approximately one-sixth of the 
estimated population of the city as a whole. Figuring on this 
basis the district covered by our survey has a total population of 
approximately 11,000. The one-thousand households visited had 
a total population of 4,176, which is considerably over one-third of 
the estimated population of the entire neighborhood. Table III 
gives the distribution of the population according to age and sex. 


TABLE III 

Age and Sex Distribution of Population of Neighborhood in Comparison 

with That of City as a Whole 


Age 

Male 

Female 

Total 

Percentac 

Gr 

Neighbor¬ 

hood 

.e in Each 
oup 

City* 

Under 5. 

215 

242 

457 

IO.9 

7-9 

5-9 . 

216 

229 

445 

10.6 

7-4 

10-14. 

216 

198 

414 

9.9 

7-4 

15-W. 

152 

197 

349 

8.4 

9.1 

20-24. 

158 

182 

340 

8.1 

11.1 

25-34 . 

3i8 

343 

661 

15-9 

20.6 

35-44 . 

253 

301 

554 

13-3 

15-5 

45 and over. 

467 

418 

885 

21.2 

20.8 

Unknown. 

40 

3 i 

7 i 

1-7 

0. 2 

Total. 

2035 

2141 

4176 

100 

100 


* U.S. Census , 1910. 


A few interesting facts are revealed by this table. For instance 
the ratio of small children for the neighborhood is considerably 
higher, and the ratio of adults, in the most productive years of life, 
considerably lower than for the city as a whole. In this area the 
percentage of children under fifteen years of age is 31.4 as against 
22.7 for the city as given in the 1910 Census. On the other hand, 
the percentage of adults in the age group 15-45 is only 45.7 for the 
1 Thirteenth Census of United States, III (1910), 399. 































490 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 

neighborhood in contrast to 56.3 for the city. Again the proportion 
of the sexes in the neighborhood is quite different from that given 
in the 1910 Census for the city as a whole. In the district surveyed 
there are but 95 males to every 100 females as against 101.5 males 
to every 100 females in Columbus, and 104.4 males to every 100 
females for the state of Ohio. 1 

TABLE IV 


Place of Birth of White Adults 18 Years and Over 


Place of Birth 

Husband 

Wife 

Oth 

Male 

ERS 

Female 

Total 

Columbus. 

179 

194 

135 

136 

644 

Elsewhere in Ohio. 

418 

462 

185 

155 

1,220 

Elsewhere in U.S. 

147 

157 

So 

51 

40S 

Germany. 

21 

19 

4 

I 

45 

Italy. 

17 

IS 

1 

2 

35 

Ireland. 

11 

13 

2 


26 

Great Britain. 

11 

A o 

7 

1 

4 

23 

Austria. 

7 

7 

4 

1 

19 

Switzerland. 

4 

•2 


x 

8 

Roumania. 

2 

O 



2 

Canada. 


I 

1 


2 

India. 

1 




I 

Australia. 

1 




I 

France. 

1 


1 


2 

Unknown. 

34 

31 

36 

25 

126 

Total. 

854 

909 

420 

376 

2,559 


It is quite evident that this is predominantly an American 
section of the city; 26.5 per cent of the adults whose place of birth 
is known were born in Columbus, 76.6 in Ohio, and only 6.7 per 
cent were born in countries other than the United States. Of 
those born outside of the United States only hi, or 4.5 per cent of 
the total population, come from non-English-speaking countries and 
these represent six different nationalities. With the exception of a 
small Italian neighborhood lying north of the subway on Rogers 
Avenue, there is no nucleus of foreign born in the entire district. 

1 These figures show that the population of the neighborhood contains more than a 
normal distribution of the economically weaker age and sex groups. Economic 
forces tend to distribute a city’s population according to the relative strength of 
families in the competitive process. 















































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 491 


Of our one thousand families forty-three were colored. If these 
were segregated in a single section of the district the number would 
be of minor significance as it comprises such a small percentage of 
the total population. But on the contrary these colored families 
are scattered over a large part of the neighborhood. Table V pre¬ 
sents a list of the streets on which they dwell. 


Street 


Chapel. .. 
Capital. . , 
Cherry... 
Grubb. . . 
Jones. ... 
Lucas. . . . 
McDowell 
McKinley 


TABLE V 

Location of Colored Families 


Number of Families 

Street 

Number of Families 

6 

Mill. 

I 

1 

Rich. 

I 

2 

State. 

I 

3 

Scott. 

2 

3 

Sandusky. 

4 

2 

Starling. 

5 

8 

Town. 

1 

2 

W. Broad. 

1 


A glance at the map of the neighborhood (p. 487) will show that 
colored people are to be found on almost every street from the river 
as far west as Sandusky Street, and, north of Broad Street, as far 
west as the survey extended. 

Most of the colored families have made their way into this 
district since the flood of 1913. Of the forty-three households 
reporting, only two have been in the neighborhood more than six 
years; thirty-two, or 74.4 per cent, have been in the neighborhood 
less than three years; and nineteen, or 44.2 per cent, have been in 
the neighborhood less than one year. Most of these colored people 
are recent arrivals from the south, only nine of the heads of house¬ 
holds were born in Ohio, eight came from Virginia, six from Georgia, 
four from Kentucky, three from Alabama, and the remaining thir¬ 
teen from various other states throughout the Union. * 1 

1 My reason for discussing the colored family in detail is to emphasize its signifi¬ 
cance from the standpoint of neighborhood disintegration and decline. There is 
probably no more valid criterion of the disappearance of neighborhood sentiment 
in any locality inhabited by American people than to find colored families dispersed 
here and there among the white families. Where any degree of neighborhood con¬ 
sciousness exists social pressure invariably keeps the colored family out; but in the 
absence of local sentiment, the advent of the negro drives the more enterprising white 
folk to look for new quarters. 





























492 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


VI. MOBILITY OF NEIGHBORHOOD 1 

We have already discussed the question of mobility with refer¬ 
ence to its more general aspects from the standpoint of the city as 
a whole. According to our general test of mobility, namely the 
percentage of the 1917 electors who failed to re-register in their 

TABLE VI 


Home Ownership by Streets 


Street 

Owner 

Renter 

Percentage of 
Owners 

Eastern section. 

102 

367 

21.8 

Belle. 

3 

19 

13.6 

Starling. 

2 

15 

11 .7 

McDowell. 

12 

37 

24.4 

May. 

3 

3 i 

8.8 

Mill. 

3 

17 

15.0 

Gift. 

6 

35 

15-3 

Broad. 

7 

21 

25.0 

Capital. 

0 

11 

00.0 

State. 

32 

84 

27-5 

Chapel. 

12 

32 

27.2 

Town. 

IS 

45 

25.0 

Walnut. 

7 

22 

24.0 

Western section. 

138 

226 

38.0 

Skidmore. 

20 

30 

40.0 

Grubb. 

11 

28 

28.2 

Sandusky. 

18 

39 

3 i -5 

Davis. 

7 

13 

35 -o 

Souder. 

8 

9 

47-0 

Richard. 

10 

28 

26.3 

Martin. 

14 

12 

53-8 

Hawkes. 

13 

12 

52.0 

Avondale. 

8 

9 

49.0 

Rich. 

IS 

35 

30.0 

Sullivant. 

14 

11 

56.0 

Total. 

240 

593 

28.8 


respective precincts in 1918, the eastern end of the neighborhood 
under consideration comprises one of the most mobile sections of 
the city. The two precincts which occupy the territory between 
the railroad tracks and the river lost almost two-thirds of their 
registered voters during the short period of one year. However, 
the neighborhood increases in stability the farther west one goes. 

1 The reader is referred to Map III {Artier. Jour, of Sociol., XXVII [September, 
1921], 163) for a general comparison of the mobility of this neighborhood with that 

of other sections of the city. 









































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


493 


The precincts lying west of the railroad tracks, with one exception, 
have a re-registration of electors of over 50 per cent. This sec¬ 
tional difference in mobility is further emphasized by the difference 
in the percentage of home ownership for the two divisions of the 
neighborhood. For instance only 21.8 per cent of the homes 
between Skidmore Street and the river are owned by their present 
occupants, as against 38.1 per cent for the region lying imme¬ 
diately west of Skidmore Street. Table VI indicates the varying 
percentages of home ownership, by streets, for the two divisions 
of the neighborhood. 

With respect to change of residence, Table VII gives the 
length of time each family has lived in its present home, in the 


TABLE VII 

Comparative Mobility of Two City Neighborhoods 


Years 

Columbus 

Seattle* 

House 

Neighborhood 

City 

House 

Neighborhood 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

0- 1. 

237 

23-7 

146 

14.6 

51 

5-1 

897 

35-9 

477 

23-4 

1- 2. 

158 

15.8 

99 

9.9 

33 

3-3 

447 

17.9 

3 ii 

15-3 

2-3 . 

106 

10.6 

88 

8.8 

47 

4-7 

269 

10.8 

228 

11.4 

3-4 . 

102 

10. 2 

89 

8.9 

4 i 

4.1 

155 

6.2 

135 

6.6 

4-5 . 

46 

4.6 

40 

4.0 

25 

2-5 

86 

3-4 

92 

4-5 

5-6 . 

44 

4-4 

46 

4.6 

30 

3 -o 

92 

3-7 

101 

4.9 

6- 7 . 

53 

5-3 

52 

5-2 

3 i 

3 -i 

75 

3 -i 

79 

3-9 

7-8 . 

15 

i -5 

28 

2.8 

23 

2-3 

78 

3 -i 

94 

4.6 

8-9 . 

16 

1.6 

28 

2.8 

22 

2.2 

73 

2.9 

76 

3-7 

9-10. 

17 

i -7 

i 7 - 

i -7 

14 

1.4 

45 

1.8 

67 

3-4 

10-15. 

84 

8.4 

104 

10.4 

106 

10.6 

200 

8.0 

235 

n.5 

15-20. 

37 

3-7 

82 

8.2 

115 

11 -5 

53 

2.1 

88 

4-3 

20 and over 

85 

8-5 

181 

18.1 

462 

46.2 

28 

1.1 

52 

2-5 

Totals... 

1,000 

100 

1,000 

100 

1,000 

100 

2,498 

100 

2,035 

100 


* The neighborhood studied comprises^about a square mile lying immediately adjacent to the campus 
of the University of Washington. It is a neighborhood of home owners of the middle economic classes. 
Fraternities and lodging houses were not included in this survey. The data were collected by the local 
Y.M.C.A. as part of the Interchurch World Survey in the winter of 1920. 

neighborhood, and in the city, and compares the result with that 
of a similar study made of a neighborhood in a higher economic 
area in the city of Seattle, Washington. 

It is apparent that the mobility of both of these neighborhoods 
is very high indeed. However, our broken-down neighborhood in 






















































494 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


Columbus is even less mobile than the higher economic neighbor¬ 
hood of Seattle. In the former 60.3 per cent of the families were 
occupants of their homes for less than four years, and 42.2 per cent 
residents of the neighborhood less than four years, while in the 
latter neighborhood 70.8 per cent of the families have lived less 
than four years in their present homes and 56.5 per cent less than 
four years in the neighborhood. 

Although the Columbus neighborhood has a large fringe of 
mobile families, still it also has a considerable stable nucleus. Over 
18 per cent of the one thousand families visited have been residents 
of the neighborhood for twenty years or more, and of these families, 
8.5 per cent have lived in their present homes throughout this 
period. This stable group forms the backbone of the neighborhood. 
Practically all of these householders are home-owners, and many of 
them are marooned superior families who are held in the neighbor¬ 
hood on account of property ties. 

The data for Seattle are not comparable in this respect, owing to 
the fact that the district surveyed is relatively new. Most of the 
present homes have been erected during the past fifteen years. The 
high mobility, however, during the last five years is not entirely due 
to the erection of new dwellings, inasmuch as the older settled sec¬ 
tions of the district show almost as high a mobility as the newer 
streets. 

Unfortunately we have no information concerning the length of 
time the Seattle families have been residents of the city. It is 
interesting to note, however, that considerably over half, 57.7 per 
cent, of the male heads of households in our Columbus neighborhood 
have been residents of the city for fifteen years or more. It is 
quite evident, therefore, that the changes of residence among this 
economic class of the Columbus population are intra-community 
or intra-neighborhood rather than from one community to another. 1 

Change of family residence, however, does not tell the whole 
story concerning the mobility of the population of our Columbus 

1 Elsa G. Herzfeld found from a study of a group of tenement-house families in 
New York “that the average length of residence is about a year and a half,” and 
that many of the moves are from “house to house in the same block .”—Family Mono¬ 
graphs (1905), p. 48. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


495 


neighborhood. It is also necessary to take into account the number 
of detached or floating persons who live as boarders or lodgers in 
the neighborhood. Our house-to-house canvass shows that there 
are 417 such persons, 236 males and 181 females, scattered among 
267 of the 1,000 homes visited. This floating element is to be 
found for the most part in the eastern end of the district where 
the leading factories are located. Starling Street especially, due to 
its proximity to the railroad and the Godman Shoe Factory has 
become a center for boarding and lodging houses. 

The relatively high physical mobility of the population of this 
neighborhood is somewhat counteracted by the lack of adequate 
means for communication. As was indicated elsewhere in this 
study mobility depends upon many factors other than the mere 
change of residence. 1 Time and means for getting about are also 
important considerations. Thus people living in the lower eco¬ 
nomic areas may have a high degree of mobility, so far as change of 
residence is concerned, and still be very much more dependent upon 
their neighborhood institutions than are the home-owners of the 
more stable and economically superior residential districts. The 
telephone, the automobile, and the business contacts give to 
the latter an independence of neighborhood organizations which the 
former do not possess. For this reason we have attempted to 
ascertain the facilities at the disposal of the people within this 
neighborhood for secondary means of communication. 

Only 77 or 7.7 per cent of the 1,000 householders interviewed 
reported the ownership of an automobile. 2 And practically all 
of these machines are owned by families living on or west of 
Sandusky Street. In regard to the possession of telephones, 289 or 
29.8 per cent of the households had this means of communication. 
This number of telephones may seem rather high, considering the 
low economic status of the neighborhood, but, as will be shown 

x Cf. Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XXVII (September, 1921), 167. 

2 The total number of persons in the 1,000 households was 4,176; this leaves one 
machine for every 56.8 inhabitants. According to the Goodrich Rubber Company 
report, there was, in 1919, one motor-vehicle for every 10.4 inhabitants in the state 
of Ohio; and one for every 14.2 inhabitants in the United States. Cf. J. Phelan, 
Readings in Rural Sociology (1920), p. 256. 


496 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


later, the neighborhood is not a homogeneous economic unit. On 
the contrary it represents a mixture of families with respectable 
incomes living side by side with families who are in the utmost 
poverty. 

If is difficult to measure the degree of dependence of this popu¬ 
lation upon its neighborhood institutions. The proximity of the 
region to the heart of the city makes the uptown institutions 
easily accessible to those with the means and desire to attend. 
That the different age and sex groups vary considerably in the 
degree to which they patronize the uptown institutions and 
places of amusement is shown by the facts brought to light in our 
study of the neighborhood churches and commercialized forms of 
recreation. Small children, mothers, and the older men are almost 
entirely dependent upon the neighborhood for their social and 
recreational life. 

VII. ECONOMIC STATUS AND OCCUPATIONAL LIFE 

The neighborhood surveyed falls in Wards 9 and 10; these two 
wards, it will be recalled, comprise the lowest economic area in the 
city. Ward 9, which includes the eastern end of the neighborhood, 
represents the lowest economic rating of all the wards in the city, 
having an average per-elector household-furniture appraisal, in 
1917, of only $34.11. Ward 10, in which the major part of the 
neighborhood is located, has the second lowest rating with an 
average household furniture listing of $54.66. 

Another index to the comparative economic status of different 
sections of a city is the average monthly rentals paid per dwelling. 
Unfortunately we have no data at hand to enable us to compare 
rentals of this neighborhood with those of other regions in the city. 
However, the facts revealed in Table VIII will convince the reader 
of the very low rental level of the territory surveyed. 

Of the 656 rented homes concerning which we have information 
both as to rent and number of rooms, only 9, or 1.4 per cent, rent 
for more than $20 per month, while 524, or 79.9 per cent, rent for 
$15 or less. The average monthly rent per dwelling is $13.90 while 
the average number of rooms is five. 

Table IX gives a classification of the occupations of the male 
heads of households. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 497 

The most striking feature brought to light by this somewhat 
detailed enumeration of employments is the industrial character of 
the neighborhood. This is a region where the soft collar and duck 
overalls predominate. Professional and business men form but a 
very small percentage of the heads of households. In this respect the 
neighborhood differs widely from the higher economic areas of the 
city. This fact is demonstrated by the lists (Table X, p. 499) 
of occupations of heads of households taken in order from two streets 
in other sections of the city. 


TABLE VIII 

Rents per Month in Relation to Size of Dwelling* 


Rents per month 

No. of Households Occupying Each Specified Number of Rooms 

Total 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

Under $5. 

I 


2 

1 







7 

$ 5-$ <L. 


2 

< 

2 







O 

$ 6-$ 7. 


2 

14 

6 

I 

I 



1 


V 

$ 7-$ 8. 



14 

24 

6 






44 

$ 8-$ 9. 



7 

19 

10 

4 


I 



AT 

$ 9~$io. 



9 

64 

44 

14 





T 2 T 

$io-$ii. 



1 

20 

20 

c 





46 

$ii-$i2. 




21 

C2 

24 

2 




IOO 

. 




11 

J O 

l8 

7 


I 




$i3~$i4. 



2 

T. 

10 

1 < 

2 




O / 

$14-$1?. 




2 

21 


2 

I 

I 



$i<:-$i6. 




C 

C 

27 

2 

I 

I 


O z 

A T 

$i6-$i7. 




«J 

2 

< 

8 

I 

I 



T 7 

$i 7 -$i 8. 




I 

8 

21 

2 

2 



1 / 

“2 C 

$i8-$i 9 . 





1 

A 

O 

I 


I 


O J 

$I9~$20. 





1 

14 

e 

2 

x 


/ 

$20 and over. .. 






4 

0 

I 

2 

1 

1 

9 

Total . 

I 

7 

54 

l8l 

203 

173 

19 

11 

6 

1 

656 


* It must be kept in mind, however, that these figures represent conditions in May, 1919, before the 
general rise of rents in Columbus. 


Although the west side neighborhood is primarily a working¬ 
man’s district, still it by no means represents a uniform standard of 
living. Many of the heads of households, such as skilled laborers, 
railroad conductors, etc., belong to the higher income groups and 
could easily afford to live in one of the superior economic areas of 
the city. Proximity to work doubtless accounts for their residence 
here. 1 But on the other hand, the large number of different forms 

1 Fifty-two per cent of the adult male workers in our one thousand households 
walk to and from their work. 














































































498 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE IX 


Occupations of Male Heads of Households 


Working for Self 

No. 

Working for Others— 
Railroads 

No. 

Barber. 

2 

BasrETaere man 

■2 

Blacksmith. 

7 

Blacksmith 

O 

*2 

Baker. 

o 

I 

Brakeman 

O 

T T 

Butcher. 

C 

Boilermaker 

£ 

Carpenter. 

J 

2 

Car insDector 

2 

Contractor. 

C 

Clerk 

O 

7 

Grocer. 

o 

A 

Conductor 

/ 

16 

Junkman. 

I 

Engineer 

i x 

Lawyer. 

I 

ExDressman 

i 

Paper hanger. 

4 

Fireman. 


Painter. 

c 

Foreman 

o 

A 

Peddler. 

o 

2 

Freight man. 

2 

Plasterer. 

2 

Hostler. 

2 

Repair man. 

I 

Laborer. 

77 

Real estate. 

7 

Lineman. 

OO 

2 

V Saloon keeper. 

o 

4 

Machinist. 

14 

Small business. 

8 

Night watchman. 

2 

Shoemaker. 

i 

Railroader. 

17 

Taxi driver. 

i 

Repair man. 

2 

Tailor. 

i 

Switchman. 

2 

Tinsmith. 

2 

Transfer man. 

I 



Train caller. 

I 

Total. 

58 

Total. 

145 




Working for Others— 
General 

No. 

Working for Others— 
General 

No. 

Working for Others— 
General 

No. 

Actor. 

I 

Dyer. 

i 

* Painter. 

0 

Bartender. 

8 

Electrician. 

7 

Paper hanger.... 

3 

/Barber. 

4 

Engineer. 

70 

Penitentiary guard 

7 

Boiler maker. 

2 

/Fireman. 

II 

Plumber. 

8 

Blacksmith. 

O 

2 

Foreman. 

27 

Policeman. 

Q 

Buffer 

o 

C 

Furnace man. 

< 

/Printer. 

I 

./Butcher. 

o 

6 

Hotel clerk. 

4 

Shipping clerk.... 

7 

Bookbinder 

6 

/Insur. salesman. . 

7 

Soldier. 

4 

BookkeeDer 

i 

Inspector. 

4 

Salesman. 

14 

Bank teller 

i 

Ice man.. 

12 

/Shoemaker. 

2 5 

/Carpenter. 

21 

./Janitor. 

4 

St.-car motorman. 

11 

^/Clerk 

7 7 

/Laborer. 

14 

Solderer. 

3 

rflhinPt-rrmkpr 

O J 

2 

Lineman. 

4 

Steel worker. 

21 

G'nndv maker 

2 

/Laundry man.... 

2 

Tinsmith. 

1 

SCook 

2 

Lamp maker. 

I 

Tailor. 

2 

C' nllectnr 

4 

Meter reader. 

4 

Taxi driver. 

1 

("!r>nner 

T 

Machinist. 

31 

v/Truck driver. 

3° 

G'hanffenr 

O 

cr 

Molder. 

12 

Undertaker. 

1 

Chemist. 

0 

2 

Marble worker... 

I 

Window trimmer. 

1 

TOernrn tr>r 

2 

Mail carrier. 

4 

Retired. 

10 

TOetertive 

I 

Mason. 

s 

Unknown. 

48 


2 

Meat packer. 

6 



Druggist. 

i 

/Night watchman.. 

7 

Total. 

631 








































































































































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


499 


of employment represented here indicate that this neighborhood is 
not a collectivity of workers grouped around some dominant 
industry such as we find in the neighborhood of the South Columbus 
Steel Works or in the stockyard district of Chicago. 

Of the various industries represented in the neighborhood the 
railroads employ the largest number of the heads of households. 

TABLE X 


Street A, Ward 15 


Occupation 

No. 

Building contractor. 

2 

Business man. 

10 

Engineer. 

3 

Lawyer. 

1 

Manufacturer. 

1 

Newspaper editor. 

1 

Night chief of police. 

1 

Physician.. 

2 

Restaurant proprietor. 

1 

Traveling salesman. 

7 

University professor. 

4 


Street B, Ward 16 


Occupation 

No. 

Attorney. 

3 

Automobile dealer. 

3 

Building contractor. 

1 

Clerk. 

4 

Conductor, steam R.R. 

3 

Electrical engineer. 

1 

Manufacturer. 

2 

Real estate dealer. 

1 

Retired. 

1 

Superintendent R.R. 

1 

Traveling salesman. 

4 

University professor. 

1 

Wholesale merchant. 

4 


TABLE XI 


Name of Industry 

No. of Employees 

Percentage 
Resident in 
Neighbor¬ 
hood 

Total 

Male 

Female 

Godman Shoe Co. 

550 

230 

220 

25.0 

Crystal Ice Co. 

135 

130 

5 

90.0 

Doddington Lumber Co.... 

IOI 

100 

I 

25.0 


Our survey shows that 145 of the leading male breadwinners are 
engaged in some form or other of railroad employment. The God- 
man Shoe Factory comes second employing 30, and the Crystal Ice 
Company next, furnishing work to only 12 heads of households. 

A survey of the main industries of the neighborhood, all of 
which are located in the northeastern end between the river and 
McDowell Street, gives the information presented in Table XI, 
with respect to the number of employees and the percentage of 
them residing within the neighborhood. 






















































500 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


In regard to unemployment we succeeded in obtaining infor¬ 
mation concerning 865 male heads of households. Of this number 
331, or 41.1 per cent, reported being off work for a period of seven 
days or more during the first three months of the present year 
(1919); and no, or 13.6 per cent, reported being idle in this same 
period thirty days or more. Of the causes given for unemploy¬ 
ment 26.7 per cent reported sickness, 35.1 per cent reported lack 
of work, and the remaining number, various other causes such as 
visiting, etc. 

Our house-to-house canvass shows that 113 mothers work out¬ 
side the home for remuneration. These are distributed among 25 
different types of employment, day work and the shoe factory 
claiming the largest percentages. 



The 87 official relief cases, the distribution of which is marked 
on our neighborhood map, do not give an accurate conception of 
the extent of poverty within the district. They merely indicate 
the number of families within the neighborhood who were actually 
obtaining relief from official sources at the time of our investigation. 
Had we taken the cases for a three-year period instead of one, the 















TEE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 501 

spots on the map would have given the appearance of almost solid 
black. Of course but a small percentage of the families below the 
poverty line actually come to the attention of the relief agencies of 
the city. My personal impression is, from reading over the notes 
on the one thousand schedules taken, that a large percentage of the 
families are in economic distress. 

VIII. THE HOME AND DOMESTIC LIFE 

Over 70 per cent of the houses of this district are single or 
duplex dwellings. Outside of Broad and State streets there are 
relatively few apartment houses. The buildings, in general, are 


TABLE XII 

Artificial Lighting of Dwellings 


Means of Artificial Lighting 

No. of Households 
Reporting 

Percentage 

Gas. 

794 

79*4 

Electricity. 

92 

9.2 

Oil lamps. 

99 

9.9 

Unknown. 

15 

1 .5 

Total. 

1,000 

100 


TABLE XIII 
Household Conveniences 


Conveniences 

No. of Homes 

Percentage 

Bath. 

407 

40.7 

Ice box. 

716 

71.6 

Toilet in house. 

435 

43-5 


placed close up to the streets leaving no room in front for lawns 
or grass. The blocks are laid out in such a way that there are few 
lanes or alleys, and most of the buildings on Broad Street have 
their entrances facing the side streets. The several alleys of the 
neighborhood, Capital, Chapel, etc., are dignified by the appellation 
“streets” and are used as such, having dwellings on both sides, 
although not more than thirty feet wide. 

As one might expect, considering the low rentals charged, the 
houses of this district are, for the most part, obsolete. Tables XII 
and XIII give the results of our house-to-house canvass in this 
regard. 



























502 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


In regard to lighting it is interesting to note that there are 
more households using coal-oil lamps than there are using elec¬ 
tricity. Gas, however, is the predominant method of lighting; 
almost 80 per cent of the dwellings use no other means of artificial 
illumination. Further, it will be observed that over 50 per cent 
of the homes are without baths or inside toilets. The absence of 
the ice box 1 in 29 per cent of the homes is also a point of significance 
for the public health authorities. 

Table XIV shows the number of rooms per dwelling in relation 
to the number of occupants. 

TABLE XIV 

Rooms per Dwelling in Relation to Size of Household 


No. of Persons 

No. Using Specified Number of Rooms 

Total 

in Household 

1 

2 

3 

4 

s 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

Unknown 

I . 

2 

7. 

2 

7 

2 

I 

I 

1 


1 


7 

21 

2. 


7 

27 

11 

53 

42 

39 

34 

16 

63 

70 

42 

46 

31 

24 

5 

5 

38 

44 

52 

47 

27 

30 

11 

7 

7 

7. 

1 


IO 

212 

7 . 


I 

18 

10 



1 

6 

203 

171 

158 

95 

89 

28 

0 

4 . 



7 

10 

13 

8 

s; 

1 

1 

I 

c .. . 



Q 

9 

2 

2 


I 

6 


2 

3 

1 

4 

6 

7 

7 



7 



16 

8 

7 

2 

7. 




/ . 

8 



2 

3 

2 

7 1 

1 

1 



0 




3 

2 




1 



11 

v. 

TO 




1 


1 


1 



5 

1 1 # 





1 

1 







2 

I 2 





1 

3 





1 


5 














Total.. 

2 

9 

62 

209 

290 

259 

60 

55 

17 

11 

3 

23 

1,000 


Unlike most industrial regions in large cities this neighborhood 
shows, at the date of survey, very little overcrowding in housing 
conditions. Of the households concerning which we have complete 
information, the average number of persons per room is 1.3. A 
significant fact brought out in the table is the large number of 
households of three or less members occupying dwellings of five 
rooms or more. There are 268 of these. But on the other hand 52 
families, comprising 397 persons, are living in dwellings having less 
than two rooms for every three persons, which, according to housing 
standards, implies overcrowded conditions. And, as might be 

1 It is an interesting observation that the question in the schedule concerning the 
presence or absence of the ice box was the only one which consistently gave offense. 





































































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 503 


surmised, these dwellings are, for the most part, located along the 
alleys in the eastern section of the neighborhood. 

Of the one thousand families visited 295 reported owning their 
own homes. In other words about 29 per cent of the homes of the 
entire district are occupied by their present owners. Unfortu¬ 
nately we do not possess the facts in regard to home-ownership 
for the city as a whole, consequently we cannot compare this 
neighborhood with other sections of the city. The percentage of 
home-ownership found here, however, is considerably higher than 
that of many of the big cities of the country where the apartment 
house abounds. For instance in Baltimore the ratio of home- 
ownership is 27.9 per cent, in Chicago 25.1 per cent, in Boston, 
18.9, in New York 12.1, and in the crowded boroughs of Manhattan 
and the Bronx only 5.9 per cent. 1 

Although kinship does not any longer play the role that it 
once did in the organization of local life, nevertheless, it is still a 
factor in neighborhood selection within the city. Of the 1,000 
households studied, 646 reported having one or more related 
families residing within the city of Columbus, and 476 households 
claimed kinship to one or more families living within the confines 
of the immediate neighborhood. These facts indicate that the 
bond of kinship continues to influence the territorial groupings of 
people within the city. This is especially true with respect to the 
lower economic areas. Mutual aid has almost ceased to be a 
factor in the fragmentary and casual relations between neighbors 
in the city environment. What direct co-operation remains, out¬ 
side of the purposive organizations such as the trade unions and 
fraternal societies, is confined to the members of the family or 
kinship group. 2 This fact may partially explain the relatively high 

1 Munro, Government of American Cities, p. 48. 

2 1 am aware that this statement does not correspond with the usual findings of 
social workers concerning the extent of mutual aid among tenement families. For 
instance Dr. Devine is quoted as saying “It is a question whether the unmeasured but 
certainly large amount of neighborly assistance given in the tenement houses of the 
city, precisely as in a New England village or in a frontier settlement, does not rank 
first of all among the means for the alleviation of the distressed.”—Rev. John A. Ryan, 
Commencement Address to a graduating class in New York School of Social Work, 
1920. For similar findings compare Elsa G. Herzfeld, op. cit., pp. 33-34. 


504 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


percentage of kinship found in this comparatively low economic 
region of the city. A very small percentage of the heads of house¬ 
holds belong to the trade unions or voluntary societies of any sort, 
consequently there is greater need for reliance upon relatives in 
times of need. 

The family group is now taken by welfare organizations as the 
unit for case-work. It is therefore important to know the salient 
facts about the family life of any region where social reconstruction 
is contemplated. 


TABLE XV 

Age Distribution of Male Heads of Households 


Age in Years 

Percentage of Heads of Households 
in Each Age Group 

Neighborhood 

Columbus 

Under 25 years. 

3-9 

6.2 

25-44 . 

50.8 

57-2 

45 and over. 

45-3 

36.6 


As was indicated by Table III (p. 489 of this article), and is 
further brought out here, the age distribution of the population 
within the neighborhood differs considerably from that of the city as 
a whole. The neighborhood has a distinctly lower percentage of 
people in the prime of life, and a considerably higher ratio of chil¬ 
dren and people over forty-five years of age. This condition is par¬ 
tially explained by the fact that a number of young men were still in 
military service when the survey was made. It may also be true, 
however, that during the more productive years of life many people 
are able to afford residence in the more desirable sections of the city, 
but, as their productive capacity declines with age, they are forced 
to retire to the lower rental areas. 

Children per family .—Table XVI indicates the number of 
children per family under eighteen years of age residing at home 
at the time the survey was made. 


Among our families, however, there was little evidence to show that mutual aid 
extended beyond the kinship group. There were of course occasional spots in the 
district where neighbors exchanged services but such cases seemed to be exceptional. 















THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 505 

This table shows that about 25 per cent of the families reporting 
are without children living at home; that the average number of 
children per family is only 1.9, which of course is very low. The 
average is brought down, however, by the high percentage of 
households having no children at all. On the other hand there 
are 106 households where there are five or more children living at 
home. These large families are found, as a rule, in the broken- 
down streets and alleys of the neighborhood. 

TABLE XVI 


Children per Household, 18 Years and Under 


Children per Household 

Households Reporting Each Specified 
Number of Children 

No. 

Percentage 

None. 

249 

24.9 


219 

21.9 

2. 

192 

19.2 

3 . 

138 

13.8 

4 . 

96 

9.6 

5 . 

76 

7.6 


13 

i -3 

7 . 

8 

.8 

8. 

4 

• 4 

9 . 

2 

. 2 


3 

•3 

Total. 

1,000 

100 


The broken family .—By the “broken family” we mean family 
groups where either or both parents, for some reason or other, are 
absent from home. Unfortunately, owing to the delicate nature 
of family problems, it was impossible to ascertain whether the 
parent’s absence was due to death, divorce, desertion, or some 
other cause. Temporary absence, however, is not recorded in 
Table XVII. 

It will be observed from this table that 15.6 per cent of the 
households may, according to our definition, be classified as broken 
families. Twenty-six households are listed as non-family groups; 
these comprise groups of non-relatives or at least distant relatives, 
living together in household association. 

























THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 



The unwholesome family .—As we have already indicated, 1 every 
normal individual possesses four general types of desires, namely, 
the desire for safety or security, the desire for recognition or social 
status, the desire for new experiences or stimulations, and the desire 
for mastery or power. If any one of these general desires is not 
getting adequate expression in the social environment the individual 
or group concerned tends to show signs of restlessness and discon¬ 
tentment, which may finally end in disorderliness or some other 
form of emotional disturbance. Whenever we find such dissatis¬ 
faction and maldirection of attention on the part of members of a 


TABLE XVII 

Parental Status of Heads of Households 


Parental Status 

No. of Households 
Reporting 

Percentage 

Both parents. 

818 

81.8 

One parent—father. 

20 

2.0 

One parent—mother. 

120 

12.0 

Neither parent present. 

l6 

1.6 

Non-family groups. 

26 

2.6 

Total. 

1,000 

IOO 


family group, we call that group an “unwholesome family.” Such 
families may not come under the supervision of any organized 
social agency; nor is it necessary that they be in adverse economic 
conditions to show signs of degeneracy and social unwholesome¬ 
ness. Slums have been characterized as “ areas of lost souls and 
missions,” 2 areas where individuals and family groups are living 
in enforced intimacy with people whom they naturally shun and 
avoid; areas where there are no standards of decency or social 
conduct except those imposed by outside authority. In such an 
environment the individual has no status, there is no representative 
citizen, the human desires for recognition and security remain 
unsatisfied. 3 

1 See Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XXVII (September, 1921), 160. 

3 From a mimeographed circular issued by Division of Immigrant Heritages, 
Americanization Bureau, New York, January, 1919. 

3 Joseph Lee, referring to the disorganizing influence of the slum environment, 
writes (Play in Education [1919], p. 382): “The danger, often realized, is that the 
city dweller may have no neighbors, or at least no neighborhood—no group of any 


















THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 507 


There are many instances of unwholesome families to be found 
within this neighborhood; let us give a few typical examples. 

Case A: This is a family composed of husband, wife, and four 
small children. They live in a four-roomed dwelling for which they 
pay $10 per month. The home contains none of the modern 
conveniences such as bath, ice box, or toilet facilities. It is also 
bereft of musical instruments of any sort, books, or magazines. 
The family does not even take a daily paper. The husband is a 
day laborer and during the early part of the year was off work on 
account of illness for four weeks. According to its own report the 
family occasionally attends the street mission but none of its 
members belong to any outside social group. In the informant’s 
language, “We never visit no one.” The visitor makes the note, 
“The little girl, E, has never gone to school although she is nine 
years of age and apparently bright.” 

Case B: This family is composed at present of just father and 
mother, the children are all grown up and away. The couple live 
in about the same conditions as family A. The home is devoid of 
conveniences and cultural marks of any description. The husband 
drinks. He visits saloons and his wife does fancy work all day. 
They are not on friendly terms with their neighbors who say, “They 
swear and drink too much.” The old lady says, however, “They 
are jealous of us, they throw bricks at our windows; it’s a rough 
district.” Investigator’s note: “The wife wears a huge sunbonnet, 
has a frightened, piping voice, crochets, tats, and does fancy work 
continuously; she has four yelping dogs and three cats penned up 
in the kitchen, evidently to protect her; she is a regular story-book 
type of woman.” 

Case C: In this family there are husband, wife, and four chil¬ 
dren, the eldest of whom is but eleven years of age. The family lives 
in a five-roomed frame dwelling which is obsolete in every respect. 
They have been in the neighborhood five years and in the city six. 
The wife and children occasionally attend the Church of Christ but, 
outside of this, they have no form of social life. The wife dislikes 


sort in which he feels a membership—no immediate social atmosphere, no standard 
which holds him up and which he feels it his business to uphold. He easily becomes 
the man without a neighbor almost as maimed as the man without a country or the 
man without a home.” 



THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


5°8 

the neighborhood because, “There are too many niggers and dogs.” 
With regard to her neighbors she remarks, “We leave each other 
alone.” Investigator’s note: “The woman told me that she lacked 
but one month of graduating from a southern Presbyterian college 
when she married. She seems satisfied with the slum life but told 
me how awfully poor they are; they can’t even afford an evening 
paper.” 

Case D: This family has seven members, father, mother, and 
five children the eldest of whom is about eighteen. The family 
has been in the neighborhood just six months, having moved there 
from a country district. So far, it has not found itself in its new 
environment. The only recreational or social life reported by the 
family is an occasional attendance at the motion-picture show. 
The family has lost social status since coming to the city and is in 
a position to become disorganized. The mother said to the investi¬ 
gator, “We used to keep up in society, but just can’t any more, 
my son could dance like they danced in the country but of course 
town dancing is more like society.” They do not like the neighbors 
round about them because “they fight and beat each other.” 

These are but a few cases selected at random from a large 
number of a similar sort. They represent what we call “unwhole¬ 
some families,” that is to say, some of the dominant attitudes and 
values which are necessary to make life wholesome and thriving 
are missing. It should be part of the duty of the neighborhood 
social worker to get acquainted with all such families under his 
jurisdiction and help them to help themselves by discovering their 
wants and needs and then linking them up with the organization 
or social group with which the respective members most closely 
identify their personalities, thereby arousing a new interest and 
motive for living. 

The marooned family .—It is quite as important for the social 
worker in a broken-down neighborhood to know his sources of aid 
as to be familiar with the pathological conditions with which he 
has to deal. For this reason we wish to call attention to the fact 
that there are many families in all parts of this neighborhood who 
are as competent and as intelligent citizens as are to be found in 
any other section of the city. Many of these families are long- 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 509 


time residents of this neighborhood, who on account of home- 
ownership or other local attachments have been compelled to 
remain here long after the surrounding area has become disinte¬ 
grated and broken down. Such families usually have a desire to 
help rehabilitate their surroundings, but, realizing their individual 
helplessness, despair of any accomplishment. A few become 
rancorous and soured toward the region of their habitation and 
hold themselves aloof from any form of contact with the people 
round about. Their interests and associations are in other sections 
of the community, consequently they feel no dependence whatever 
upon their neighborhood institutions and have no interest in their 
welfare. The two following cases are typical examples of “ ma¬ 
rooned families.” 

Case A: This family consists of father, mother, and three 
grownup children. They own their home and have been living 
in the neighborhood for the past fifteen years. The father is 
an engineer, the daughter a stenographer, and one of the sons 
is a student at the university. The family is living in a section 
of the neighborhood that has fallen to pieces during the last few 
years. The mother informed the investigator: “This is a horrible 
place to live in but we can’t leave on account of our property.” 
Investigator’s note: “This is a high type of family, not to be 
compared with the people round about.” 

Case B: This family is living in the eastern section of the 
neighborhood. They have been in their present home for thirty- 
nine years. The family is composed of a widowed mother, sixty 
years of age, and three grownup children, two sons and a daughter. 
The older boy is an automobile salesman, the younger one had not 
returned from the army on the date of visit. All members of the 
family belong to the Catholic church which they report attending 
regularly. They have a phone, piano, and over one hundred books 
in their library. The family is anxious to sell their home and get 
out of the neighborhood. They consider the people living round 
about as “nothing but trash.” Investigator’s note: “This is a 
nice old lady; she considers the neighborhood run down and 
refuses to have anything to do with the families around her except 
the K’s.” 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE IN 
THE CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 


r. d. McKenzie 

University of Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Religion and the church. Differences in religious and moral attitudes are potent 
elements in the determination of lines of association in this neighborhood. The 
Catholic church is a dominant force, but most of the Protestant churches are losing 
ground. Missions, representing the more mystical creeds, enlist the interest of a 
considerable element of the population. Education and delinquency. Part of this 
neighborhood has the lowest school-attendance rating of any section in the city. The 
children attending one of the schools in this section were rated by a psychologist as 
mentally two years below the children attending a school in a higher economic area of 
the city. Juvenile delinquency is slightly more prevalent in this neighborhood than 
in the city as a whole. Neighborhood sentiment. Positive sentiment for the neighbor¬ 
hood and surrounding neighbors is rarely expressed by resident family groups. Occa¬ 
sional streets, however, contain intimate neighborly groups of people who are happy 
in their physical and social surroundings. 


IX. RELIGION AND THE CHURCH 

Our chief interest in wishing to know the religious affiliations of 
the people of this neighborhood is to get some clue concerning the 
diversity of their voluntary associations. A study of any resi¬ 
dential area within a city always reveals the great complexity of 
the associational life of its inhabitants. The crossings and recross¬ 
ings of individual interests show that neighborhood association 
alone is not adequate to meet all the needs of human nature. 
Table XVIII gives in considerable detail the religious preference 
of the adults of this neighborhood as obtained from our house- 
to-house canvass. It includes all persons indicating religious pref¬ 
erence, not merely church members or attendants. 

It will be observed that there is a considerable range of difference 
in the religious preference of the people in this district. Approxi¬ 
mately 32 per cent of all adults reporting, 38 per cent of the men 
and 26 per cent of the women, deny affiliation with any religious 

588 





THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 589 


group. Of those indicating religious preference, 520, or 22.8 per 
cent, incline toward the Catholic faith, and, for the most part, are 
members of the Holy Family Church within the neighborhood. 
The remaining 1,317, or 87 per cent, indicate preference for one 
or other of the various Protestant sects listed in Table XVIII. 
It will be noted that a very considerable portion of those of Protes¬ 
tant faith belong to the more mystical and orthodox types of 
religious sects. 

TABLE XVIII 
Religious Affiliation 



Male 

Female 

Total 

No. reporting no church affiliation. 

488 

363 

851 

No. reporting affiliation with Catholic churches. 

237 

283 

520 

No. reporting affiliation with Protestant churches... 

575 

742 

U 3 I 7 

Sectarian distribution of Protestants: 




Methodist. 

195 

247 

442 

Baptist. 

73 

90 

163 

Presbyterian. 

68 

82 

150 

Lutheran. 

47 

60 

107 

Church of Christ. 

36 

65 

IOI 

Episcopal. 

37 

49 

86 

United Brethren... 

34 

38 

72 

Spiritualist. 

15 

25 

40 

Congregational. 

10 

10 

20 

Protestant Church. 

8 

3 

11 

Seventh-Day Adventists. 

4 

7 

11 

Holy Rollers. 

4 

7 

11 

Christian Science. 

1 

8 

9 

Salvation Army. 

2 

6 

8 

Missions. 

4 i 

45 

86 

Total number of persons reporting. 

1,300 

1,388 

2,688 


The facts brought out in our religious census, together with the 
general attitudes expressed on religious questions, go to show that 
the people of this neighborhood constitute a peculiar mixture of 
intense religious enthusiasm combined with religious apathy or 
pronounced religious antagonism. In other words the apparent 
homogeneity of the population of this area, as revealed by the 
external physical and cultural conditions, is, for the most part, 
superficial. A study of the inner associational life of the people 
shows that there exist wide chasms of difference in social attitudes. 
































590 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


That religious bias is an important factor in determining lines 
of association and group life is indicated by the following expres¬ 
sions of typical attitudes: “We have our own Spiritualist friends 
and don t bother any one else.” “I don’t like this district, too 



many niggers and Holy Rollers.” When asked concerning attend¬ 
ance at motion-picture shows, one woman replied, “Pictures are 
sending thousands straight to hell, dances are worse, I’m plain 
spoken.” Another woman remarked, “I want to leave this neigh¬ 
borhood, I have Catholics on both sides of me.” Such examples 

























THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 591 


might be multiplied indefinitely, attention is drawn to them merely 
to illustrate the difficulties involved when attempting to bring 



individuals of different religious and moral attitudes into a common 
plane of association. 1 

City churches may be roughly grouped into two general classes: 
neighborhood churches and non-neighborhood churches. The 

1 “It is assumed, I suppose, that any idea or group of ideas, any belief or group of 
beliefs, may happen to be, or may become, a common interest, shared by a small or a 
large number of individuals. It may draw and hold them together in bonds of 






























592 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 

former type selects its members largely on the basis of proximity, 
the latter type selects its members chiefly on the basis of individual 
preference or interest without respect to locality. 

The distribution of a church’s members determines the role 
which it may play as a neighborhood builder. It is difficult to 
focus attention on neighborhood affairs among a congregation 
that is widely distributed throughout the entire city. Maps VIII 
and IX illustrate the two types of churches referred to. 



Map X 


Within the district surveyed there are seven churches and five 
missions, the locations of which are marked on Map X. A sum¬ 
mary of the leading facts concerning these religious institutions 
will give some indication of the role they play in the fife of the 
neighborhood. In the first place it must be noted that the churches 
vary considerably in the extent to which they draw their member- 

acquaintance, of association, even of co-operation. It thus may play a group-making 
role. Contradictory ideas or beliefs, therefore, may play a group-making role in a 
double sense. Each draws into association the individual minds that entertain it or 
find it attractive. Each also repels those minds to whom it is repugnant, and drives 
them toward the group which is being formed about the contradictory idea or belief. 
Contradictions among ideas and beliefs, then, it may be assumed, tend on the whole 
to sharpen the lines of demarkation between group and group.”—Giddings: “Are 
Contradictions of Ideas and Beliefs Likely to Play an Important Group-making Role 
in the Future?” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., 2XIII, 784. 















THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 593 


ship from the neighborhood round about. For instance four of the 
churches report that over 90 per cent of their members live within 
walking distance of their respective places of worship; the fifth 
church reports that 50 per cent of its members live within walking 
distance, the sixth 35, and the seventh only 10 per cent. This 
information will help in the interpretation of the following facts. 


TABLE XIX 

Summary of Leading Facts with Respect to the Churches 



Protestant 

Churches 

Catholic 

Church 

Total seating capacity of church auditoriums. 

2,250 

800 

Total membership (Communicants). 

L 730 

1,400 

Total membership under 21 years of age, four Protestant 



churches reporting. 

283 

700 

Total average morning attendance, four Protestant 



churches reporting. 

390 

1,250 

Total average evening attendance, five Protestant 



churches reporting. 

623 





In the area covered by our survey there is a population of 
approximately 11,000. Considering the fact that these religious 
institutions serve a much wider region than that covered by the 
survey, it is evident that they do not play a very important role 
in the life of the neighborhood. Of the four Protestant churches 
supplying information, 23.7 per cent of their members are less 
than twenty-one years of age, and 50 per cent of the members of 
the Catholic church fall below this age limit. Five of the six 
ministers of the Protestant churches reported having difficulty in 
maintaining the interest of the young people of their congregations, 
while Father Clarke of the Holy Family Church stated that he had 
no problem in this regard. Furthermore, the four Protestant 
churches giving information reported an average attendance of 
only 33.7 per cent of their members at the morning service and 
44.6 per cent at the evening service. 

In addition to the churches just described, there are five mis¬ 
sions in the neighborhood. It is interesting to note that these, like 
the saloons, are located in the eastern and northern sections of the 
district, that is, in the most disintegrated parts of the neighborhood. 
These missions were all visited by our investigator and information 
was obtained concerning the type of attendants, nature of teach- 
















594 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


ings, and extent of their activities. They are all open on week 
nights, and report a total average nightly attendance of 115, and a 
total average Sunday attendance of 320 people. In their preaching 
they emphasize Holiness, Gift of Tongues, Sanctification, etc. An 
interesting fact about these organizations is that most of them are 
products of the distant past, some of them dating back half a 
century or more. They are real, live, social organisms which owe 
their existence to the fact that they satisfy real needs in the lives 
of a people whose normal human desires have been stifled or mis¬ 
directed by an adverse social environment. The mission affords 
an opportunity for self-expression and status in another world to 
those who, in the competitive social process, have lost social security 
and recognition, which indeed is the explanation of the “lost soul.” 

Of the six Protestant churches in the district, five gave infor¬ 
mation concerning their Sunday-school activities. These reported 
a total average weekly attendance in adult classes of 114, in inter¬ 
mediate classes, 241, and in classes for children, 130. These figures 
become significant when we interpret them in the light of the wider 
group statistics. In the territory which they serve there are 
approximately 3,000 children under eighteen years of age, which 
implies that only one out of every nine children is enrolled in a 
Protestant Sunday school. These figures are somewhat tem¬ 
porized, however, by the fact that the one Catholic church in the 
district has an average attendance of 360 children in its Sunday 
morning classes. 

The six Protestant churches report the following societies in 
connection with their church work: eight societies for women with 
a total membership of approximately 250, four of which are devoted 
to missionary enterprises; four organizations for men with a total 
membership of 97; four young people’s societies with an approxi¬ 
mate membership of 235; four societies for girls with a total 
membership of no; and one boy scout organization with a member¬ 
ship of thirty. Most of these societies have meetings once or 
twice a month with occasional social functions of a more general 
character. 

In the six churches referred to, there are nine parlors with a 
total seating capacity for approximately three hundred people. 
Two of the churches have pianos, one a stereopticon, one a gym- 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 595 


nasium, two libraries, and four have kitchens. The recreational 
activities of the Catholic church are carried on under the direction 
of the parochial school and Father Clarke reports that a fully 
equipped gymnasium is now being constructed in the school 
building. 

In reply to the question, “What additional equipment would 
the pastor like ?” we received the following statements: (1) “Basket¬ 
ball equipment, bowling alley in basement, a pool table, and a 
trained social worker.” (2) “A community house and playground 
in connection.” (3) “A stereopticon and some good games.” (4) 
“The best thing is to have some religious service every night in the 
week.” (5) “A bulletin board, a movie lantern, above all we lack 
leadership.” (6) One pastor considers that it is not the function 
of the church to engage in welfare work. 

X. LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES 

This district is by no means a unit so far as equipment of homes 
for leisure-time activities is concerned. With respect to the 
possession of musical instruments, books, magazines, and indoor 
games, a considerable number of the homes are furnished quite as 
well as those in the higher economic areas of the city. This is 
particularly true with reference to many of the homes west of 
Sandusky and south of Broad Street; and there are also homes 
scattered in other sections of the neighborhood where facilities for 
indoor leisure-time activities are by no means lacking. On the 
other hand, a large percentage of the homes of the entire neighbor¬ 
hood are pathetically bereft of any sort of equipment whatever for 
the fruitful expenditure of leisure time. For instance, many of 
the homes have little or no reading material other than the daily 
paper 1 and some families are either too poor or too ignorant to 
afford even that. 

It will be noted that over 50 per cent of our one thousand 
families have in their homes no musical instrument whatever. On 
the other hand, 20 per cent of the homes contain pianos. This is 
merely further evidence of the heterogeneous character of the 

1 It is noteworthy that 76 per cent of the families reported taking as their 
daily paper the Citizen , an evening paper which features dramatic news and human 
interest stories. This paper’s city circulation is quite large but not equal to that of 
its less dramatic competitor the Columbus Despatch. 


596 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


population of this neighborhood. Poverty and sufficiency, vicious¬ 
ness and respectability, are to be found side by side in this area 
of the city. 

It might be expected, owing to the relatively small part organ¬ 
ized club life plays in the lives of the people of this district, that 


TABLE XX 

Possession of Musical Instruments 


Name of Musical Instrument 

Families Reporting Each Specified 
Kind of Instrument 

No. 

Percentage 

No instrument. 

506 

50.6 

Piano. 

218 

21.8 

Organ. 

16 

1.6 

Phonograph. 

181 

18.1 

Piano and phonograph. 

58 

5-8 

Organ and phonograph. 

4 

•4 

Unknown. 

17 

1-7 

Total. 

1,000 

100 


social visiting would be the normal and customary way of spending 
leisure time. For this reason an attempt was made to ascertain to 
what extent social visiting was customary, either within, or without 
the neighborhood. For obvious reasons it was difficult to get 
accurate information on this point; consequently the following 
summary of facts is at best but an approximate statement of 
the truth. 

TABLE XXI 

Extent of Social Visiting Within and Without the Neighborhood 1 



No. 

Percentage 

Number of families reporting no visiting at all.. 

Number reporting more visiting within than without 
neighborhood. 

235 

506 

222 

22 

IS 

1,000 

23.5 

50.6 

22.2 

22 . 

1 .5 

100 

Number reporting more visiting outside neighborhood.. 
Number reporting equal amount of visiting within and 
without neighborhood. 

Unknown... 

Total. 



1 In our survey we defined social visiting as calling on a family in its home and 
not merely talking over the back fence. Neighborhood was defined as the area 
within walking distance of the home. 






































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 597 


The astonishing thing about this table is the large number of 
families—23 per cent—that reported no visiting at all. The usual 
explanation was: “I have too much to do, have no time for visit¬ 
ing ” or “I attend to my own business and let other folk attend 
to theirs.” 

It is apparent that social visiting is, to a large extent, becoming 
obsolete even among the poorer classes as a means of employing 
leisure time. This is doubtless due to the mobility and anonymity 
of modern city life where personal acquaintance and neighborhood 
association have largely become a thing of the past. 1 In contrast 
to this it is interesting to note the replies of the old-timers to the 
question, “What were the principal old-time forms of recreation 
in the neighborhood?” The following answers are typical: “Pic¬ 
nics, neighborhood dances, barn dances, fishing parties, friendly 
visiting, etc.” 

There are two leading amusement areas in the neighborhood 
where large numbers of the people, both young and old, gather 
every evening. These areas are the best lighted and gayest spots 
in the district. They can be easily recognized by even the casual 
visitor to the neighborhood as the local fountain heads of amuse¬ 
ment. Both are located on Broad Street—one between May and 
Mill avenues, the other farther west on Broad between Hartford 
and Jones avenues. In the first area there are two saloons, each 
having a poolroom in the rear, a motion-picture theater, an air 
dome, a restaurant, a barber shop, and a shoe-shining parlor. 

The three motion-picture theaters of the neighborhood are 
located in the two areas just referred to. One of these is really 

1 With the disintegration of the neighborhood a large element of any city’s popu¬ 
lation is suffering from the lack of intimate associates. This is particularly true with 
reference to the mothers of small children. The disorganizing effect of loneliness 
has never been adequately analyzed. Graham Wallas says (The Great Society [1914], 
P- 35 °)> “The fact .... that there is a Mean in our powers of forming acquaintance, 
that it is joy to know enough people and a weariness to know too many, affects not 
only the group-organization of the Great Industry, but also the life of the industrial 
worker during the now slowly lengthening interval between his work and his sleep. 
The young unmarried artisan, or shopman, or clerk generally lives either in a one- 
roomed lodging with a defect of intimate association or in a great boarding-house with 
an excess of it. Outside his factory or office, he may either know no one to speak to 
or have a hundred nodding acquaintances and no friend.” 


59 $ 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


not a theater but an air dome and is closed during the winter 
months. Our investigator visited all three of these and had inter¬ 
views with their managers. From the standpoint of sanitation 
and fire protection they were all reported as being in “fair” condi¬ 
tion. Ihe pictures shown were reported as being “thrilling, 
adventurous, daring”; nothing immoral or disorganizing was 
detected. According to the investigator’s estimate of the age 
distribution of the audiences, 75 per cent in one, 65 per cent in the 
second, and 85 per cent in the third were under eighteen years of 
age. The audiences were, for the most part, made up of people 



living within the immediate neighborhood, over 90 per cent of 
whom walked to the shows. The three theaters have a total 
seating capacity of 870, and an average daily attendance of about 
800. In two of the theaters shows are held every evening with an 
additional matinee on Sunday. The third theater is open but four 
evenings of the week. Pictures are changed in all three theaters 
for each performance. A charge of ten cents for adults and of 
from six to ten cents for children is made. 

It is very evident that the motion-picture show is the most 
popular form of amusement for the people of this neighborhood. 
The results of our house-to-house canvass show that, for the women 









THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 599 


and children at least, the moving picture is the predominant type 
of recreation. The comparatively high percentage of small children 
in attendance at the shows is explained by the fact that the youth 
of the neighborhood are drawn to the more attractive and, for them, 
easily accessible forms of amusement in the heart of the city, while 
the older men attend the saloons and many of the mothers remain 
at home. 

There are eight poolrooms in the neighborhood, three of which 
are connected with saloons. They all happen to be located on 
Broad Street. The poolroom is primarily the social club for the 
young men. About 50 per cent of the patrons present on the dates 
of inspection were under twenty-one years of age. In all of the 
poolrooms the conduct was reported as being “ orderly and quiet.” 
The young men, in general, seemed to be well acquainted with one 
another and used the poolroom as a social meeting place. 

As indicated on Map XI there are at present (August, 1919) 
seventeen saloons within the area surveyed. These saloons have 
all been inspected twice; once in May before the demise of John 
Barleycorn, and again in August, two months after prohibition had 
gone into effect. An interesting fact brought out in the second 
tour of investigation was that all the saloons were found to be still 
open and doing an active business in “soft” drinks, confectionery, 
cigars, lunches, etc. In reply to the question, “Does the pro¬ 
prietor intend to continue in business?” four of the seventeen 
stated that they expected to turn their saloons into restaurants. 
One proprietor said that he was making more money than formerly; 
the remainder indicated that they were awaiting the results of the 
fall elections and the effects of the advent of cold weather on their 
soft drink business. Sixteen of the seventeen saloons were fur¬ 
nished with card tables; approximately 75 per cent of which were 
in active use on the evenings of investigation. 

There are three distinct types of saloons in this neighborhood, 
characterized by the form of service rendered and the class of 
patron served. In the first place there is the “social club” saloon 
which serves as the evening clubhouse for the older men of the 
neighborhood. Saloons of this type are to be found, for the most 
part, west of Gift Street; they are all well equipped with card 


6 oo 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


tables and owe their existence largely to the fact that they are 
social meeting places for the older men of the neighborhood who 
are too tired after a day’s work to go up town to the more dramatic 
but less sociable resorts on High and Front streets. Very few men 
under thirty years of age were found in these social-club saloons. 
Moreover the patrons seemed to be intimately acquainted with one 
another and spent their time in talking and playing u rummy” for 
the drinks. This type of saloon plays a very important part in 
the life of this particular class of people in the neighborhood. In 
fact the club life afforded by the saloon seems to be the only form 
of group association, outside the narrow circle of the home, in which 
the older males participate. 

The second type of saloon is that which caters to the transient 
class of patrons. Saloons of this character are located on Broad 
Street, especially east of the subway where the chief industrial 
establishments of the neighborhood are situated. Such saloons do 
not encourage club life, and the patrons are, as a rule, strangers to 
one another who merely stop in for a drink and then depart. 

The third and most questionable type of saloon is the “ sporting- 
resort,” used as a meeting place for young people who are attracted 
by this sort of life. The eastern section of the neighborhood 
contains several saloons of this character. The two saloons on 
Starling Street and the two on Lucas and Rich streets are the 
leading representatives of this class. They contain rear parlors 
of a somewhat questionable nature and are frequented by young 
men, “professional bums,” who very probably do not live in the 
neighborhood but merely resort there periodically. Such rendez¬ 
vous are a menace to the life of the neighborhood inasmuch as they 
attract the undesirable elements from the larger community and 
thus tend to disorganize the local area by driving out the more 
respectable families. 1 

1 Nowhere is the individualizing force of the city environment more clearly revealed 
than in the individual selection of leisure-time activities. Commercialized forms of 
recreation are organized to cater to the special interests of the different age, sex, and 
cultural groups of the population. Thus in our neighborhood the older men prefer 
the informal sociability of the saloon club life; the young men are attracted by the 
more active forms of amusement offered by the poolroom, or by the sex attractions 
of the cabaret or cheap dance hall; the young women attend the up-town dance halls 
or the movies; the small children attend the movies, while the mothers have little or 
no recreational life save an occasional visit to the motion-picture theater or the club 
life afforded by the church. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 601 


Leisure-time activities of children .—Through the kind co-operation 
of the principals and teachers of the three public schools in the 
neighborhood, a census was taken in the early part of May, 1919, 
of the after-school activities of all the children in Grades III to 
VIII inclusive. On a Monday morning the children were instructed 
by their teachers to relate in writing just how they had spent their 
time after leaving school Friday afternoon until they went to bed 

TABLE XXII 


Types of Activities Reported by 350 School Boys for a Two-Day Period, 

May 23-24, 1919 


Time 

Playing 

Baseball 

Roaming, 

Fishing, 

Swimming 

Attending 

Picture 

Shows 

Undesignated 

Play 

Reading, 

Studying 

Street 

Trades 

WORKINC 

Other 
Work 
for Pay 

Helping 

Parents 

Going 

up 

Town 

Fri. afternoon. . .. 

32.0 

8.6 

.8 

16.0 

6.9 

10.6 

12.3 

33-1 

5 -i 

Fri. evening. 

16.8 

7-4 

20.0 

13.0 

30.8 

1-4 

4.4 

15-4 

4.6 

Sat. morning. 

16.0 

13.0 


30.8 

5 -o 

7.0 

14.8 

33-7 

12.3 

Sat. afternoon.... 

25-4 

9.2 

3-8 

14.0 

4-3 

8-3 

13-4 

21.7 

14.0 

Sat. evening. 

9-7 

8-3 

27.4 

12.3 

12.3 

3 -o 

8.6 

16.0 

15.0 


TABLE XXIII 


Types of Activities Reported by 375 School Girls for a Two-Day Period 

May 23-24, 1919 


Time 

Undesig¬ 

nated 

Play 

Walking, 

Visiting, 

Picnics 

Attending 

Picture 

Shows 

Doing 

Nothing 

Reading, 

Studying, 

Music 

Working 
for Pay 

Helping 

Parents 

Going up 
Town 

Fri. afternoon... 

29-3 

7-7 

1.9 

2.1 

24-3 

4.0 

56.0 

8-3 

Fri. evening. . . . 

29.1 

11.7 

14.1 

4.0 

38.I 

.8 

32.3 

2.4 

Sat. morning.... 

12.3 

5 -i 

7-5 

•3 

7-1 

2-4 

79-7 

IO.7 

Sat. afternoon... 

22.1 

17-3 

18.3 

1.6 

12.3 

3-2 

33-6 

27.7 

Sat. evening.... 

20.0 

13-9 

25.0 

2.9 

18.1 

1-3 

22.7 

15-7 


Saturday night. In Tables XXII-XXIII an attempt has been 
made to classify the recorded activities according to the specified 
time intervals. 

Owing to the striking dissimilarity of the activities reported by 
the boys and the girls it was found necessary to make separate 
classifications. For instance social visiting and picnicing are 
popular activities with the girls while fishing and roaming are more 
attractive to the boys. In both tables the term “ undesignated 





















































602 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


play ’ includes all sorts of general statements such as “ After school 
I went home and played till supper time” or “I went out and 
played with the kids.” It will be observed that a very considerable 
part of the play activities of both sexes is of this general, unorgan¬ 
ized, and undirected nature. It simply means that the children 
are out in the streets and alleys chasing one another around as the 
occasion or impulse may direct. Play of this sort usually ends up 
in mischief or disorderliness, with the subsequent formation of 
predatory gangs. The favorite game among the boys is baseball. 
The girls, on the other hand, seem to have no outstanding form of 
play. The traditional attitude that a girl is supposed to work or 
mind the baby rather than waste her time in play is clearly exem¬ 
plified by the facts revealed in these tables. The large percentage 
of girls who report “helping parents” shows that the main activity, 
after school hours, is doing housework. Working for pay, however, 
is much less common among the girls than among the boys, as over 
20 per cent of the latter report “ working for remuneration.” The 
most popular form of evening amusement for both girls and boys 
is going to the movies. In this respect the percentages for both 
sexes are about equal. From 20 to 25 per cent of all the children 
report attending the motion-picture theater on both Friday and 
Saturday evenings. Another fact of interest in regard to these 
tables is the large number of both boys and girls who go up town 
on Saturday evening. Of the girls who thus reported 8 per cent 
gave no particular reason for their action, merely making such 
general statements as, “After supper I went up town” or “On 
Saturday night I went up town,” or as one girl of fourteen put it, 
“On Saturday night I went up town for awhile and then I went to 
Olentangy Park and danced till ten o’clock.” Two main factors 
are conducive to this going-up-town habit; first, the proximity of 
the neighborhood to the center of the city, and second, the indi¬ 
vidualism of the modern family which finds its extreme expression 
in such neighborhoods as this. 

The school and recreation .—There are three public schools in the 
district, two elementary and one intermediate, having an aggregate 
daily attendance, in 1919, of 1,644 pupils. The two elementary 
schools, Fieser and Franklinton, which include Grades I to VI, 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 603 


draw all their pupils from the immediate neighborhood covered by 
our survey. The district of the Avondale intermediate school, 
however, extends considerably farther west; about two-thirds of the 
pupils attending come from the Hilltop or adjoining territory. 

The Fieser School, located at the corner of State and Starling 
streets, is in the midst of the most broken-down area on the west 
side. It has an average daily attendance of approximately 450 
children ranging in ages from six to twelve years. The building 
is old and very ill-adapted to the service which a school should 
perform in modern community life. It is heated by hot air and 
has no ventilation system other than the windows and doors. 
Moreover it contains no artificial lighting system of any sort. Not 
only is this a tremendous handicap to the general work of the day 
school but it makes it impossible to use the building at night for 
neighborhood meetings. 

The Fieser School has a total play space of approximately 23,000 
square feet which is divided by outbuildings into three different 
areas. Considering that there are about 450 pupils attending the 
school, this makes an average play space of about 50 square feet 
per child. Taking 145 square feet per child, the minimum amount 
of space agreed upon by experts as necessary for circle games, it is 
obvious that Fieser School falls far below this standard. 

The Franklinton Elementary School, located at the corner of 
Broad and Sandusky streets, has an enrolment this year (1919) of 
550 pupils. There is a total ground space at this school of approxi¬ 
mately 10,000 square feet which is divided into two long, narrow 
strips, one about 18 feet wide used by the boys, the other 15 feet 
wide comprising the girls’ playground. It is apparent that these 
strips are entirely inadequate for any sort of group games. They 
do not even afford room for slides, teeters, etc., nor is there space 
adequate for the playing of basket-ball. The school has no gym¬ 
nasium; one room in the basement might be used for this purpose 
if it were properly floored and ventilated. 

The Avondale Intermediate School, located on the corner of 
Avondale and Town streets, has an enrolment of about 600 pupils. 
It has a play space of approximately 40,000 square feet which gives 
considerably more room per child than is provided at the Frank- 


604 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 

linton School. There is no outdoor playground equipment but the 
principal expects to start basket-ball and indoor baseball soon. 
There is no gymnasium in the school. 

In addition to the fact that the schools of the neighborhood 
afford but little opportunity for healthful play we must note that 
the district facilities for outdoor recreation are also much below the 
average for the city as a whole. The houses and apartments of the 
neighborhood, with very few exceptions, are built close up to the 
sidewalks leaving no lawn or play spaces. Further, the backyards 



are small and, for the most part, filled up with old shacks and weeds 
making them inaccessible for play purposes. These statements 
apply particularly to the eastern half of the district, especially to 
the section between Grubb Street and the river. 

On the accompanying map (XII) of the neighborhood we have 
shown all the available open spaces which are large enough for 
children’s games. It will be noted that east of McDowell Street there 
is not a single vacant lot upon which the children may play, and it 
may also be said of this region that there is scarcely a single lawn or 
patch of grass big enough for the simplest games of even the smallest 

















THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 605 

children. It is a common sight during any afternoon or evening 
to see dozens of little children in this section of the neighborhood 
huddled together in some grimy alley or chasing one another around 
a telephone pole on the street corner—human nature, both meta¬ 
phorically and literally, being torn around by the hair of the head. 

XI. EDUCATION AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 

For a general conception of the educational status of this 
neighborhood the reader is referred to Table XXIV. 1 

TABLE XXIV 

Percentage of Non-School Attendance by Wards of Children 

6 to 20 Years of Age 


Ward 

No. Attending 

No. Not At¬ 
tending 

Percentage Not 
Attending 

8. 

676 

4 

0.6 

16. 

2,945 

251 

7-8 

5 . 

2,945 

402 

12.0 

7 . 

1,718 

325 

15-8 

6. 

L 394 

478 

16.6 

15 . 

1,668 

357 

17.6 

14 . 

1,588 

374 

19.1 

4 . 

2,096 

5 i 9 

19.8 

12. 

812 

202 

19.9 

11. 

3,032 

761 

20.1 

1. 

2,634 

704 

21.1 

10. 

2,088 

704 

25.2 

3 . 

2,974 

1,125 

27.4 

13 . 

2,705 

1,299 

32.4 

2. 

1,528 

963 

38.7 

9 . 

742 

586 

44-1 


Recalling that our neighborhood is located in Wards 9 and 10, 
it is evident that a relatively large percentage of its young people 
are not attending school. Ward 9 stands at the bottom of the 
list with 44.1 per cent of the age group in question not attending 
school. Ward 10 occupies the fifth place from the bottom, with a 
percentage of non-school attendance of 25.2. 

There is no way of finding out what proportion of the non-school 
attendance of each ward falls in the lower years of the age group. 
Obviously, however, the largest part of it is made up of children 
over fourteen years of age. The different percentages just indi- 

1 These figures are taken from the unpublished records of the Columbus Board of 
Education, 1918. 




























6 o6 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


cated may be taken, therefore, as a rough measure of the extent 
to which the young people of the various wards of the city go to 
high school or college. Ward 8 might be omitted from the list 
inasmuch as it comprises the central business section of the city 
and has but few children resident in it. Moreover, Wards 2, 3, 
and 13 with their relatively poor showing should be studied in 
connection with Map I 1 which shows the distribution of national 
and racial groups within the city. It will be observed that these 
are areas in which reside large negro and foreign elements. 

No attempt was made to obtain information relative to the 
question of retardation of the children of the schools in the neigh¬ 
borhood. But in a recent study, made by the department of 
psychology of the state university, the children of Fieser School 
were rated as mentally two years below the average for children 
of the same age in a school located in one of the higher economic 
areas of the city. 2 

Fieser School .—The two elementary schools, Fieser and Frank- 
linton, are both very much overcrowded. The Fieser School tries 
to obviate this condition by dividing its elementary classes into 
two sections, one attending from 8 to 11.30 a.m., and the other 
from 12:30 to 3 p.m. The school has an open-window or “ fresh- 
air ” class which on the date of inspection had an enrolment of 
eighteen pupils. These pupils attend school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 
and are served their noonday meal by the school under the direction 
of Dr. Lenhart, the physician in charge. Penny lunches are served 
at the Fieser School at 10 a.m. daily. The principal states that 
about 25 per cent of the children patronize these lunches, which 
consist of a glass of whole milk and some graham crackers. The 
school also conducts a special class for retarded children. This class 
has an enrolment of sixteen children, most of whom are colored. 3 

Juvenile delinquency .—The reader is referred to Map V 1 for a 
general idea of the territorial distribution of the “ official” cases of 
juvenile delinquency for a single year period, 1918-19. The follow- 

1 See American Journal of Sociology, XXVII (September, 1921), 147. 

2 J. W. Bridges and Lillian Coler, “The Relation of Intelligence to Social Status,” 
Psychology Review , XXIV (January, 1917), p. 22. 

3 See American Journal Sociology, XXVII (September, 1921), 166. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 607 


ing map of the neighborhood shows the local distribution of delin¬ 
quency in greater detail. Of the 521 cases of juvenile delinquency 
indicated on the map of the city, 36 fall within the confines of the 
neighborhood. While this is a larger pro rata percentage than for 



Map XIII 


the city as a whole, still the neighborhood shows up favorably when 
compared with some of the other local divisions of the city. 

XII. NEIGHBORHOOD SENTIMENT 

In the course of time every section and quarter of a city takes on some¬ 
thing of the character and quality of its inhabitants. Each separate part of 
the city is inevitably stained with the peculiar sentiments of its population. 
The effect of this is to convert what was at first a mere geographical expression 
into a neighborhood, that is to say, a locality with sentiments, traditions, and 
a history of its own. 1 

Attachment to locality is probably the best criterion of positive 
neighborhood sentiment. There is a tendency on the part of most 
people after living for a time in a certain spot or locality to become 
so psychologically adjusted to their physical and social surround¬ 
ings that they experience a feeling of discomfort and dissatisfaction 
when transferred to a new environment. We are all familiar with 

1 Park, op. cit. y p. 579. 














6o8 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


the homesickness of the young person on the event of his first 
departure from his native village and his longing to return at the 
first opportunity to what he considers to be “the best spot on 
earth.” In the city environment neighborhood sentiment, or 
attachment to locality, has become largely dissipated owing to the 
transitory nature of residence and the absence of home ownership. 
But various sections of city life differ remarkably in regard to the 
extent of local feeling and neighborhood pride exhibited. In some 
localities within the city, neighborhood sentiment is a negative 
factor, expressing itself in terms of disapproval and repulsion with 
regard to local surroundings, while in other areas the opposite 
sentiments prevail, those of local pride and loyalty. 

From the standpoint of neighborhood organization it is impor¬ 
tant to know the general attitudes of the people toward their 
physical and social surroundings. Where there exists general 
satisfaction with respect to locality it is possible to enlist interest 
in neighborhood up-building. But if the opposite sentiments pre¬ 
vail, those of dissatisfaction and disapproval, it is not likely that 
much headway can be made in building up interest in neighborhood 
institutions. 

An attempt was made in our survey to obtain from every house¬ 
hold the prevailing attitude toward the neighborhood and the 
people living round about. Direct questions were avoided, but in 
the course of conversation the visitor recorded significant state¬ 
ments made by the informant pertaining to the physical and social 
surroundings. Obviously it is impracticable to attempt to classify 
the great variety of remarks quoted by the investigators. We have 
selected almost at random, therefore, two streets, one from the east¬ 
ern half of the neighborhood and one from the western half. The 
schedules are taken in order for these two streets and the sentiments 
expressed in the w T ords of the informant are recorded without selec¬ 
tion or discrimination. Street A lies west of Sandusky Street where 
over 50 per cent of the residents own their homes. Street B, on 
the other hand, is located in the more broken-down region near the 
eastern end of the neighborhood where less than 2 5 per cent of the 
residents own their homes. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 609 


The following lists give the direct expressions of neighborhood 
sentiment for the two streets in question: 

STREET A 

We like the neighborhood very much. 

Perfectly satisfied, afraid I’ll have to get out now because of property 
exchanges and I’m very sorry I have to leave. 

Like it pretty well—very nice neighbors. 

Very good dear neighbors, no time for visiting. 

Like it very much, not uppish but very friendly. 

Fine neighborhood, couldn’t be better for us. 

Very pleasant neighborhood. 

Neighborhood seems attractive. 

Satisfied with neighborhood, and like my neighbors very much. 

Satisfied with neighborhood. 

I like neighborhood very much, prefer it to any other I know of. 

Pleasant people but not well acquainted with them. 

I like it, all good friends in neighborhood. 

Grand neighborhood, people very friendly but I do not visit much. 

Don’t have time for visiting. 

Like my neighbors very much. 

Very nice neighbors and neighborhood. 

Don’t visit back and forth very much but all good friends. 

Got right kind of neighbors, just like one family in helping each other. 
Neighborhood couldn’t be better. 

There never was a better set of neighbors, all willing to help each other. 
Very much attached to this neighborhood. 

There is a great deal of good spirit and friendliness in our neighborhood. 
Splendid neighborhood, I like my neighbors, but do not visit with them 
a great deal. 

Perfectly satisfied with the neighborhood; neighbors are all nice friendly 
people. 

STREET B 

Neighborhood just average, people strange and quarrel a lot. 

I don’t like it and don’t mix with the neighbors but have to stay on account 
of my boy. 

Rough district, I don’t speak to the neighbors, they swear and drink too 
much. They are jealous of us. 

Would like to move out east again. 

Like West Side but not this street, no freedom, I hate Mrs. K. 

Don’t like neighbors, they are hard to get along with, fussy, so I stay to 
myself and bother none of them. 


6 io 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


Don t like neighborhood, want to move away, too many low characters. 

My husband likes East Side better but will stay here though with me. 

Don’t go out much here, don’t like my neighbors. 

I like the neighborhood and have good neighbors. 

Neighborhood fine, don’t have much time to visit neighbors. 

I like the few neighbors I know. 

Like the neighborhood. 

No hard feelings among neighbors. 

Don’t like it but have to put up with it. 

Like West Side but not this street, every one gets along fine but Mrs.-. 

Like it very well, have good neighbors. 

Don’t like it here, don’t speak to the neighbors. 

Not well acquainted, don’t go any place. 

Like the neighborhood very well. 

I like the one neighbor that I know all right. 

I like Rich Street better, people here think they’re better than I am. 

I know all the neighbors but don’t bother with them at all. 

Haven’t been here long but like the neighbors so far. 

We speak to each other but don’t visit at all. 

It is obvious that the term “neighborhood” in these expressions 
is used in the restricted sense as implying, for the most part, the 
street on which the family resides, or at most not more than the 
immediately adjacent streets. And the “neighbors” are the people 
living on the same street with perhaps the families on the street in 
the rear whose back doors are adjacent. 

There is a striking difference in the warmth of the sentiments 
exhibited in these two lists. Street A is a street of neighbors; a 
street of wholesome common folk who have lived long in close 
proximity and have developed sentiments of loyalty and attach¬ 
ment to their local environment. Street B, on the other hand, 
with the exception of a few families in the middle which form, as 
one might say, a “warm spot” of neighborly association, represents 
the result of a forced selection. That is where economic necessity 
compels people of unlike attitudes and cultural tastes to live in 
close proximity to one another. In such regions there can be no 
positive neighborhood sentiment; hatred and avoidance prevail 
until opportunity arises for moving on. 



THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE IN 
THE CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO —Concluded 


r. d. McKenzie 

University of Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Our system of government is based upon the assumption of the territorial group 
as a unit. Modern means of communication and transportation have to a con¬ 
siderable extent nullified the significance of spatial proximity as a group bond. All 
the traditional forms of political and social organization are affected thereby. Wards 
and administrative districts of cities as a rule have no correlation with natural group¬ 
ings of population. Thus the influence of local opinion in social control is minimized. 
City populations tend to segregate into territorial publics having similar attitudes 
on questions pertaining to the mores. Such similarity of attitude is not so pronounced 
on economic questions. Rehabilitation of neighborhood sentiment in a city is a 
difficult problem. Anything that tends to stabilize residence and give to the neighbor¬ 
hood a unitary character may serve to develop neighborhood consciousness. 


PART III. SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

xm. THE NEIGHBORHOOD AS THE UNIT OF POLITICAL AND 

SOCIAL REFORM 

Our entire system of government, municipal, state, and national, 
is based on the assumption of the locality group as the unit of rep¬ 
resentation and administration. This, of course, is an inheritance 
from earlier times when geographical proximity was the one funda¬ 
mental basis of group life. But modern means of communication 
and transportation together with the recent development of large 
interest groups whose common interest transcends geographical 
boundaries have undermined the foundations of our political 
system and have complicated all our problems of social reform. 
This is especially true with reference to affairs of administration in 
our large cities, where the dominant interest groups prevail and 
where life for the majority is precarious and transitory. 

Localities do not stand for special interests, being areas of community 
which circumscribe only a very limited and, with the extension of community 
less and less definite exclusiveness of social type and interest. It is in very 
great measure the mere convenience of contiguity rather than the intrinsic 

780 






TEE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 781 

distinctiveness of local interests which makes the locality an effective social 
unit. But in the central association that convenience no longer counts, and 
here organization by local divisions is, except under special circumstances, a 
mere impediment to the activity of the association. The case of representative 
government has interest in this connection. While the unit of election remains 
locality, the division of interest within the central legislature scarcely ever 
follows the lines of locality. Consequently it becomes very difficult to attain 
any form of true representation on the basis of local election. Members 
ostensibly elected to represent a locality, often in fact represent, though inade¬ 
quately on account of the mode of election, not merely the broad policy of a 
party, but the special interest of some association, some trade or profession or 
church or other grouping. This cross representation is creating one of the 
most difficult problems within the sphere of political science . 1 

In general the criticisms of our city government, as far as they 
pertain to the neighborhood, may be divided into two classes. 
First, the excessive localism revealed by some of the more stable 
and stronger city neighborhoods tends to exploit the larger interests 
of the city in general. This type of situation is illustrated in the 
following quotation from the Pittsburgh Survey. 

It is not suprising, therefore, that Pittsburgh early became a hotbed of 
petty politics. As in other cities councilmen chosen by wards throve through 
catering to local needs while indifferent or negligent to the weightier interests 
of the city as a whole. Thus, whole sections of well-paved streets might mark 
the bailiwick of some aggressive ward councilman, who none the less had a hand 
in giving these same streets along with the main thorofares of Pittsburgh, in 
perpetuity to the street car monopoly. Hence the saying: “Any ward can be 
bought for a new side walk or a pair of wooden stairs.” Local benefit naturally 
became the test of discharge of official duty, the street paving schedule, the 

pork barrel of the city budget.Even justice has been so diverse an 

interest that each ward chooses its own local magistrate, before whom, none the 
less, may be brought a case from anywhere in the city. The only concern of 
an alderman is to please his “constits”; let him “soak” the fellow outside his 
district and his re-election was secure . 2 

On the other hand, the utter lack of neighborhood sentiment, 
so common in many sections of our large cities, provides a fruitful 
field for the establishment of our notorious boss system of govern¬ 
ment. The boss seizes upon the opportunity to act the part of the 
good neighbor among an element of the population whose precari- 

1 R. M. Maciver, Community (1917), p. 258. 

3 Pittsburgh Survey, I, 45-46. 



782 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


ous conditions of life emphasize the value of the kindly, personal, 
neighborly relations, but at the same time create indifference 
toward the more general interests of the neighborhood or com¬ 
munity as a whole. 

A successful ward boss must be a worker, capable by his example of inspir¬ 
ing others to similar industry. He must not be content with doing the work 
that comes to him, he must look for things to do. As his work consists mainly 
in doing favors for voters, he must inspire requests as well as grant them. 
Therefore he encourages voters to come to him for help when they are out of 
work or in any other sort of trouble. When a voter is arrested, the ward or 
district leader will lend his services to secure bail or to provide counsel, or will 
arrange to have the offender’s fine paid for him. Then there are the day-to-day 
favors which the local boss stands ready to do for all who come to him, provided 
they are voters or can influence voters. These services cannot be even recapit¬ 
ulated here, for their name is legion. To one he lends money to stall a land¬ 
lord whose patience is exhausted; to a family of another he sends fuel or 
provisions in time of need. “He buys medicine for the sick and helps to bury 
the dead. He dispenses an ample hospitality in the saloons; as soon as he 
comes in, known and unknown, gather about him, and he treats everybody. 
He is the only one who does not drink, for he is on duty.” Tested by his acts, 
the boss is chief among neighborhood philanthropists; judged by the motives 
that prompt his acts, he is a serpent spreading the slime of political debauchery 
over whole sections of the community. With the submerged tenth (it would 
be more accurately termed the submerged half) of a great city’s population, 
however, it is the acts and not the motives of the man that weigh . 1 

\ I 

Students of municipal affairs disagree concerning plans for the 
reconstruction of city government. Some authorities, recognizing 
the present disorganized state of the city neighborhood, advocate 
the selection of representatives at large without respect to neigh¬ 
borhood or vocational interests; 2 others would even go so far as to 
abolish entirely the geographical unit of representation and substi¬ 
tute for it representation on the basis of vocational or interest 
groups; 3 while others again, realizing the importance of neighbor¬ 
hood sentiment as a civic force, would attempt to rehabilitate and 
revivify the neighborhood making it function once more as a 

1 Munro, The Government of American Cities, pp. 175-76. 

2 This is the position taken by exponents of commission government. Cf. E. S. 
Bradford, Commission Government in American Cities (1911), p. 305. 

3 For a concise statement of the views of the “Political Pluralists” see M. P. 
Follett, The New State (1920), chap, xxviii. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 783 


community institution. 1 There is general agreement, however, 
that our present ward system of representation is a failure. 

The ward councillor represents his own ward, and that alone. He forgets 
that the city is more than the sum of its wards, and that the public opinion of 
the city may be different from the totality of neighborhood clamors. Ward 
divisions are at best ephemeral: unlike the French arrondissement , the American 
ward has rarely any traditions and as a unit of area exacts no spontaneous 
loyalty from the people who live in it. What passes for ward loyalty is, more 
commonly than not, local prejudice fostered by politicians to serve their own 
personal ends. Moreover, the concentration of single ethnic elements in 
particular sections of the city makes it practically certain that, under the ward 
system, some members of the council will owe their election to nothing but 
their proficiency in appealing to racial or religious or social narrowness. The 
ward system likewise affords a standing incentive to that most vicious of all 
American contributions to the science of practical politics, the gerrymander; 
it makes possible the control of a majority in the council by a minority of the 
city’s voters, and, unless redistricting is resorted to frequently, it fosters gross 
inequalities in representation. The term “ward” has accordingly come into 
disrepute in the terminology of American government, a somewhat curious 
fact, by the way, since in England, where councillors are and always have been 
chosen from wards, no such odium has been developed. Its presence here is 
doubtless explained by the fact that in American ward representation, ward 
politics, and ward organization have come to be associated in the public mind 
with bossism, trickery, and almost everything else that is politically demoraliz¬ 
ing. A feeling so deeply lodged can scarcely be without some substantial 
foundation. 2 

Although the territorial unit of representation is tending to 
become a thing of the past in American city government, yet the 
unit for administrative purposes still remains the geographical area. 
Cities are districted into a large number of local units to meet the 

1 M. P. Follett is one of the best-known advocates of the rehabilitation of the 
neighborhood as a political and social unit. The thesis of her recent book, The New 
State, is that intelligent participation in social control can be achieved only through the 
conscious reconstruction and federation of such small territorial groups as the neigh¬ 
borhood. 

As a unit of social reform, the neighborhood has received the attention of social 
workers for several decades. The social settlement movement represents the first 
attempt to institutionalize the social activities of the neighborhood. The present 
trend of this movement is evidenced in the increasing popularity of the social center 
activities, community councils, and, in a still more comprehensive way, in the social 
Unit Plan of Cincinnati. 

2 Munro, The Government of American Cities, pp. 191-92. 


7 8 4 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


administrative problems of the various departments of city govern¬ 
ment. Each department subdivides the city into geographical 
units adjusted to suit its peculiar administrative purposes without 
respect to the natural groupings of population, and without con¬ 
sideration of the geographical subdivisions made by other 
departments of city government. 

Attention has been called to the fact that one of the things which make 
city government inherently difficult, is the lack of neighborhood feeling which 
seems invariably to be produced by city life. If each branch of the city govern¬ 
ment, and each city executive department, forms districts to suit its own con¬ 
venience merely, it is almost a certainty that there will be almost as many 
series of different districts as there are branches of city government and city 
executive departments. The result is that such a neighborhood feeling as may 
exist is disintegrated, and that it becomes impossible, so long as this administra¬ 
tive diversity continues, for such a neighborhood feeling to develop. If, on 
the other hand, care were taken to make the election districts the same as the 
judicial districts and to cause these to conform, in some way, to the police, fire, 
and other districts, if the district court-house, the fire engine-house, the police 
station-house, and even the school-house in given parts of the city were situated, 
from the point of view of city geography, near each other—placed perhaps in 
or around a small playground or park,—it would be possible to develop civic 
centers which would tend to encourage the development of neighborhood spirit. 
It is quite true that the convenience of the departments might be interfered 
with, but the loss suffered by the departments would be more than compensated 
for by the development of neighborhood spirit, and in many instances as well 
by the greater convenience of the citizen who would find that his business with 
the city government could be conducted with greater ease than under conditions 
where the city districts bore no relation to each other. Under the plan which 
has been outlined, of course the districts would be more permanent than at 
present, while the civic centers which might develop would, of necessity, be 
absolutely permanent. The changes of population which are going on so 
continuously in the city would make the problem of district representation a 
different one from what it is where the districts are not permanent but are 
changed to suit the changes of population. The problem would not, however, 
be one of great difficulty, for, instead of establishing single districts as at 
present, it would be possible to make provision for districts whose representa¬ 
tion would vary with their population. 

The plan which has been outlined is one which to a large degree has been 
adopted in Paris. Paris is divided into twenty districts, each of which has a 
civic center —the mairie —at which are found the office of the maire, in this case 
a district and not a city officer—generally a city library, and the local office of 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 785 


the charities department. The mairie itself is usually situated in a small open 
space or park. The twenty districts, in addition to being thus administrative 
districts, are also election and judicial districts. In this case, notwithstanding 
their differences in population, they are equally represented on the city council. 
So far, however, in the United States little attention seems to have been given 
by the city governments to this important matter, and the convenience 
of the administrative departments alone has been considered. The result is 
that an opportunity has not been availed of either to preserve or to develop 
neighborhood feeling, or to secure an architectural effect which would render 
city life much more attractive than it is at present. 1 

If the neighborhood is ever to be organized as a political or 
social unit, it is of the utmost importance that the formal super¬ 
structure shall be made to coincide as nearly as possible with the 
natural neighborhood groupings of the population. It is a remark¬ 
able fact that the most prominent advocates of neighborhood 
reconstruction have failed to take cognizance of this necessity. It 
is surely apparent that any effective system of community planning 
must take account of the divergent attitudes of the various com¬ 
munity groups; and this is just as important with respect to the 
locality groups as it is with respect to the trade union or chamber 
of commerce. 

It is, of course, not always an easy problem to locate the bound¬ 
aries of natural neighborhood groups. Frequently one neighborhood 
blends into another without any objective signs of demarcation. On 
the other hand, areas of similar objective characteristics may be in- 
habitated by family groups whose interests and attitudes are entirely 
irreconcilable. 

I shall now present the results of an attempt to study neighbor¬ 
hood group attitudes in the city of Columbus. My study is based 
on data obtained from the records of the Board of Elections. The 
geographical units for the collecting and recording of data on all 
subjects on which the city’s electorate votes are the precincts and 
wards. Columbus is divided into sixteen wards having a total of 
262 precincts. The precinct is quite small, including but one or 
two city blocks and having an average registered electorate of less 
than two hundred. 

1 Frank J. Goodnow, City Government in the United States (1906), pp. 201-3. 


786 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


I shall attempt to discover the territorial distribution of the 
voting public 1 son a number of issues which have come before the 
electorate during the past few years. Municipal questions divide 
the voting public into two groups—those in favor and those opposed. 
After a campaign which varies in intensity according to the nature 
of the issue, a vote is taken and the result apparently accepted by 
both sides. The geographical distribution of the losing minority 
seems of little consequence. From the standpoint of law enforce¬ 
ment, however, it becomes a very significant matter whether one 
city neighborhood has imposed its will on a numerically smaller 
neighborhood entirely out of sympathy with the decision. With¬ 
out the support of the local opinion of the neighborhood it becomes 
extremely difficult to enforce legislative enactments. If, on the 
other hand, the losing minority does not happen to be segregated 
in particular neighborhoods, but is scattered evenly throughout the 
city, the question of law enforcement is of a much more simple 
nature. 

In order to ascertain the types of municipal questions on which 
local segregation of voters takes place, I have made a study of the 
voting records on eight different issues on which the electorate of 
Columbus have voted during the past few years. The percentage 
of affirmative votes on each of the eight municipal questions re¬ 
corded in Table XXV has been determined for each ward. The 
results are compared with the percentage of the affirmative votes 
on each issue for the city as a whole. The deviations of each ward 
from the city’s average is thus taken as a measure of the ward 
segregation of voters on each question. 

This table shows very distinctly that there is much greater 
segregation of voters on subjects pertaining to the mores, or social 
customs, than on subjects which deal with economic questions. In 
the first group of subjects, designated Class A, the ward deviations 
from the city’s average range from 6 to 12—a fact which shows that 
there is a very pronounced local bunching of similar attitudes on 

1 Any unorganized association of individuals bound together by common opinions, 
sentiments, or desires and too numerous for each to maintain personal relations with 
the others, constitutes a public in the broadest sense of the term.”—W. J. Shepard, 
“Public Opinion,” Amer. Jour, of Sociol., XV, 36. 


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788 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


these questions. Wards 15 and 16, which show the highest positive 
deviations, stand in striking contrast to Wards 2, 3, and 9, which 
show almost as large negative deviations from the average for the 
city as a whole. With respect to the economic issues, grouped in 
Class B, the ward deviations from the city’s average are relatively 
slight. On no subject is the average deviation for all the wards in 
Class B as great as that found for any of the issues in Class A. The 
most conspicuous bunching of opposites is found in Wards 3 and 
15, especially on the city tax levy issue of 1917. 

Although small deviations are found on the School Bond issue 
of 1917, nevertheless, from the standpoint of community interest 
and campaign enthusiasm, this was an unusually hotly contested 
local issue. The two publics concerned, however, were geographic¬ 
ally dispersed almost uniformly over the entire city. Athough the 
final vote stood 9,738 for, to 22,918 against, not a single precinct in 
the city voted a majority in favor of the proposed bond issue. 

There seems to be little correlation between high economic 
status and the tendency to support measures involving an increase 
in taxation. While Wards 4 and 5 rank highest in the city with 
respect to economic status, still, on the average, they do not support 
economic measures as well as Ward 9 which stands at the bottom 
of the economic scale for the city. Furthermore, it is interesting 
to note that the deviations of Wards 1, 2, and 3, wards which com¬ 
prise the large German neighborhood, are negative on all questions 
listed in our table; while the deviations in Wards 14, 15, and 16 
are positive on all issues. Wards 9 and io 1 have negative deviations 
on all issues in Class A but tend to support taxation measures. 
This may be partially accounted for by the relatively small number 
of large taxpayers in these wards. 

Let us now examine more closely the territorial distribution of 
the publics supporting and opposing each of the foregoing subjects 
grouped in Class A, as representing the mores, that is, questions 
involving conceptions of right and wrong. Of course the ward is 
too large a geographical unit to furnish a true picture of the details 
of local sentiment on these subjects. Local groups of diametrically 
opposite points of view are frequently bunched together within the 

1 These wards embrace the disorganized neighborhood already studied. 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 789 

same ward. The precinct, therefore, is a better unit than the ward, 
to bring into relief the natural boundaries of the local group. In 
order to illustrate the various regional attitudes on questions 
pertaining to the mores I have prepared Maps XIV, XV, and XVI. 


N 

A 


Olenton 



MAP OF 

COLUMBUS,OHIO 

SHOWING 

PERCENTAGES OF ELECTORS VOTING FOR 

PROHIBITION 

1918 


] Less than 4-0 °fo 

Y/ -. ///A 40 to 50 

50 to 60 ^ 
60 ^ and over 


if' % Neighborhood 

I ii/**' J 


® Settlement House 


a 

4 


Scale of Miles 
0 I 


2 


Map XIV 


These maps are constructed on the basis of the voting precinct and 
represent the percentage of electors for each precinct voting affirma- 
























7 Q 0 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


tively on the three subjects in question—prohibition, woman’s 
suffrage, and the non-employment of women in liquor shops. 

The similarity of shading of the various sections of the city in 
all three of these maps is significant. The local areas that supported 



Olentangy 


WARD ;I2 

Union i - ”" 
# Station I 


[Penitentiary 

WAR 


fC/Qjo 


Main 


WARD 2 « 

, Washington ^ 


M AP OF 

COLUM BUS, OH IO 

SHOWING 

PERCENTAGES OF ELECTORS VOTING FOR 

WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

1918 


Scale o-PMiles 
0 I 


Less than 40$ 

40 to 50$ 

50 to 60 $ 

60$ and over 
Neighborhood ©Settlement House 


Map XV 

prohibition invariably supported woman’s suffrage to approximately 
the same degree. The areas surrounding the central business 
section of the city stand out conspicuously as opposed to both 



































THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


791 


prohibition and woman’s suffrage and in favor of the employment of 
women in liquor shops; while the eastern, western, and northern 
extremities of the city—the three leading residential areas—are 



Map XVI 

strong supporters of the first two issues and opposers of the third 
issue. 

In the process of the sifting and sorting of population within a 
city, there is a tendency for people of similar mores to become 



























792 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


grouped together in neighborhood association. 1 And it is only in 
the decision of questions involving the mores that the specific 
group character of these local areas comes into prominence. The 
consistency of attitudes displayed by the various local regions on 
questions dealing with the mores is remarkable. Not only did the 
Columbus vote on prohibition for consecutive years show almost 
precisely the same results, as far as local segregation of opinion is 
concerned, but the votes on the other subjects, more or less kindred, 
show almost identical distribution of supporters and opposers. 
The ward distribution of opinion on a number of such subjects is 
graphically shown in Graph I. 

The points are arbitrarily connected to assist the eye in following 
the ward fluctuations on these subjects. The correlation of ward 
opinions on these three subjects is conspicious. Obviously the 
voter who favored woman’s suffrage voted also for prohibition, and 
for the non-employment of women in liquor shops. 

The lower line graphically representing the relative economic 
status of the different wards, bears an interesting similarity of 
fluctuations to those of the lines illustrating ward opinion on the 
three subjects in question. Wards 4, 5, 15, and 16, which stand 
high in economic status are the strongest supporters of each of the 
three municipal issues; while Ward 9, which has the lowest 
economic rating, shows the lowest affirmative vote on these issues. 

The correlation of opinion on these subjects may be shown still 
more clearly by observing the precinct distribution of votes for a 
single ward. There are too many precincts to make it practicable 
to show this distribution for the entire city. But the distribution 
of opinion within one ward will serve as an example of the general 

1 Similarity of attitudes, however, is not in itself a criterion of group consciousness. 
It is necessary that the individual members of the group shall be aware of the similarity 
of their attitudes. Referring to the Polish peasant, Thomas and Znaniecki, say, 
“The manner in which social opinion holds the community together is easily analyzed. 
Any extraordinary occurrence becomes for a certain time the focus of attention of all 
the members of the community, an identical attitude toward this is developed, and 
each member of the community is conscious that he shares the general attitude or that 
his attitude is shared by the rest of the community. These are the three original 
elements of the mechanism of social opinion: the phenomenon, the identity of attitude, 
and the consciousness of this identity .”—The Polish Peasant in Europe and America , 
I, 145- 


GRAPH I 


Percentage 

of 

Affirmative 

Votes 



i 2 3 4 s 6 7 8 9 io n 12 13 14 15 16 wards 

a) Ward Distribution of Votes 

— .. . Prohibition 

—— — — Woman’s suffrage 

■■■ ' 1 - —Non-employment of women in liquor shops 



Note.—E conomic status is determined by dividing total tax returns, per ward, 
on household furniture by total number of electors per ward. 













































































794 


TEE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


tendency. Graph II indicates the percentage of voters in each 
precinct in Ward 3, who voted in favor of the three issues: 
woman’s suffrage, prohibition, and the non-employment of women 
in places where liquor is sold. 

While the percentages of affirmative votes do not fluctuate 
similarly in every case still it is very plain that there is a direct 


GRAPH II 

Precinct Distribution of Votes on Three Issues—Ward 3 

——Prohibition 
- — — Woman’s suffrage 

—— - - Non-employment of women in liquor shops 

Percent¬ 
age of Precincts 

tive Votes B S P FEDCA IHGRKQL OMN 



correlation of opinion on these three issues. Moreover, it is evident 
that there is a decided regional divergence of opinion within the 
boundaries of this ward. Precincts M, N, and O, which lie in the 
eastern end of the ward, represent opposite attitudes to those of 
such precincts as B and S, which occupy the western section of the 
ward, bordering on Sixth Street. 

It is clear to everyone that ward boundaries, as a rule, are purely 
artificial, and do not, therefore, represent the natural groupings 
of population within a city. However, all wards in Columbus are 


































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796 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


not equally artificial. Some show a much greater tendency toward 
homogeneity and coincidence with natural local groupings than 
others. In order to discover the comparative homogeneity of the 
different wards of Columbus I have made a study of the precinct 
variations of opinion for each ward. The method employed was 
as follows; the total percentage of affirmative votes in each ward 
on each of the four subjects indicated on Table XXVI, was taken 
as the basis. Then the percentage of affirmative votes on each 
subject for each precinct within the ward was compared with this, 
and the deviations averaged. Table XXVI gives the result of this 
tabulation for all the wards of the city. 

A few interesting facts are revealed in this table. In the first 
place it is quite clear that there is considerable difference in the 
extent of solidarity in the various wards of the city. Ward 2 stands 
out conspicuously as distinctly the most homogeneous ward. With 
its average deviation on all subjects of but 3.8, it stands in striking 
contrast to its neighboring Ward 3, which has an average deviation 
of 9.2; and to Ward 6, which has an equally high average. In fact 
Ward 2 consistently shows greater homogeneity on all issues than 
any other ward in the city, with the two slight exceptions of Wards 
5 and 7, in item three, and in these particular cases the differences 
are extremely small. 

The precinct deviations from the ward averages for Wards 2 
and 3 are graphically represented in Graph III. 

With the single exception of Precinct A, which stands at the 
northeast corner of the ward, there is extremely little geographical 
bunching of votes in Ward 2. Ward 3, on the other hand, shows 
the opposite tendency. Its precinct fluctuations vary from 17 to 
62 per cent of the electors voting in favor of prohibition. 

The superior homogeneity of Ward 2 is due to the fact that this 
ward is inhabitated almost exclusively by a single nationality, 
Germans. Ward 3, on the contrary, is composed of a number of 
different foreign groups in addition to a large American population. 

XIV. CONCLUSIONS 

A few conclusions may be drawn from this study of local opinion. 
First, the population of a city tends to segregate itself into locality 
groups possessing similar cultural and moral values; second, issues 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 


involving economic expenditure reveal more reflection and personal 
choice on the part of the voter than do issues pertaining to the 
mores; third, the ward is not a unit of opinion on any issue except 
where its boundaries happen to coincide with the natural cultural 
and ethnic groupings of the population. 

Those interested in the rehabilitation of the city neighborhood 
must, if they are to succeed, take into consideration the dominant 


GRAPH III 


Percentage 

of 

Affirmative 

Votes 


Comparative Homogeneity of Wards 2 and 3 
As illustrated by precinct distribution of affirmative votes on the issue of prohibition, 1918 

——— Ward 2 



Precincts 


forces at work strengthening or disintegrating the locality groups. 
An efficient scheme of neighborhood reconstruction must take 
cognizance of the natural groupings of the population, and efforts 
must be made to stabilize such groupings as far as possible by 
establishing community safeguards against encroaching disturbing 
factors. On the other hand, efforts must be made to give to each 
neighborhood a physical unitary character sufficient to differentiate 
it from surrounding localities. This, of course, will involve a 
systematic scheme of city planning. The following quotation 































798 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 


indicates that this subject is already receiving consideration from 
experts on city planning: 

There is then a need today, from the standpoint of city planning, for a 
standard political area corresponding to the city neighborhood—or if one 
answers that there are no such things as city neighborhoods, then for the city 
neighborhoods that ought to exist. A large city should be divided into local 
or neighborhood governments, presumably elective, which should, under the 
city government, have charge of certain physical interests of the district. The 
desirability of having real city neighborhoods matching certain city planning 
needs—and, though meeting these, realizing also certain spiritual ends—neigh¬ 
borhoods defined and vitalized by the possession accordingly of certain govern¬ 
ing powers, is enforced in many ways. 

It is emphasized by the monotonous lack of local structural design and thus 
of efficient organic character in our outspread cities, looked at as wholes. It is 
emphasized by the struggling efforts of groups of persons in various localities, 
through local improvement clubs, to affect their local physical conditions by 
their joint efforts, and by the fact that, as things are, a great part of the people 
feel helpless or indifferent concerning these matters. It is emphasized by pro¬ 
jects which have been made by architects and sociologists to design fit groupings 
for local institutions, business, cultural and social, with a view for the better 
performance of their proper functions and a better symbolizing of the idea of 
neighborhood solidarity. 

It is emphasized by the zealous and in many places locally rooted social 
center movement, which has spread so widely during the last few years. It is 
emphasized by the desire of finest elements of many isolated nationality groups 
for broad and inclusive co-operation in their districts toward social welfare, 
and by the spreading notion that common folk should be mustered into the life 
of the community as they have not been heretofore. It is emphasized by the 
recognized need for moderating the excessive and wasteful mobility of city 
populations, by giving more meaning to locality and making neighborhoods 
more worthy of permanent residence. It is emphasized by the fact that certain 
local interests, touching both the physical functions and social aims of mod¬ 
ern government, can be better understood and administered locally than by 
the long range machinery of a city government centering at city hall and 
covering perhaps scores or hundreds of square miles. It is emphasized by 
the historical fact that the finest architectural embodiments of human insti¬ 
tutions and ideals have for the most part been wrought out by communities 
of limited size, as ancient Athens and the cathedral cities of Europe amply 
testify. 

As to precisely what functions would lend themselves to efficient local 
management—possibly the design, construction, maintenance and adornment 
of local streets, the removal of household waste, the provision of some recreation 
factors, especially for the smallest children, the receipt of taxes, the registration 


THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A STUDY OF LOCAL LIFE 799 

of vital statistics, the development of an architectural scheme for a real neigh¬ 
borhood center—whether these are some of the functions which might be 
considered as appropriate for local management, is a question upon which I do 
not wish now to enter. Nor need we now discuss whether this primary govern¬ 
ing area should comprise one square mile or ten, 10,000 people or 100,000. 
Cases would be decided according to circumstances. Just as local intelligence, 
pride, and initiative, however, are invaluable in smaller cities for the purpose 
of government, just as the value of these forces is indicated by that fear of 
losing them which leads many outside communities to resist annexation to 
larger communities—so, I believe, these forces will, when given fair opportunity, 
demonstrate their value and efficiency toward limited city neighborhood 
government on a well-considered plan. I believe that the proper scope and 
objects of city planning will be neither adequately conceived nor adequately 
achieved except through the application to the large city of some federal 
scheme which will bring to bear the potentialities of neighborhood political 
areas as such for their own higher physical organization . 1 

However much we may idealize the values of the social solidarity 
of the traditional neighborhood and long for their return, the fact 
remains that our social order has changed profoundly from the 
organic life of the old hamlet or village societies. The seething 
movements of population show no signs of abating. Community 
life is ever growing more mobile and transitory. The demand for 
small homes or apartments, equipped with every possible built-in 
feature—if not completely furnished—is increasing. The modern 
family is loath to assume any responsibilities which may interfere 
with its freedom to move when opportunity or occasion arises. It 
is all a phase of the dynamic economic and social order in which we 
are now living. With the change undoubtedly we lose some of the 
values which went with solidarity, but, on the other hand, we gain 
much through the very looseness of the present social structure. 
Perhaps some of the neighborhood values may be restored by 
intelligent organization, but there seems to be little ground for 
belief that the dreams of the more extreme neighborhood promot¬ 
ers will ever be realized. 

1 George E. Hooker, “City Planning and Political Areas,” National Municipal 
Review , VI (May, 1917), 34i“42. 











































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